Area bat removal should be left up to the professionals. Not only are bats a protected species, they have very sharp teeth and should be handled with care. Read more about bats and learn facts you may not have known about these beautiful creatures. If you find that you need bat control or bat abatement, call Summit Environmental Solutions, SES, now to set up a free inspection and get an estimate on bat removal, clean up and repair at 703-520-5868.

Bat facts

Here is a collection of bat facts you may not know!

• Nearly 1/4 of all mammal species are bats. That’s around 1,000 kinds of bats!
• Bats are mammals. They are the only mammals that can fly.
• Bats are the slowest reproducing mammal on the earth for their size, most producing only one young (pup) per year.
• Vampire bats, which do feed on blood, account for only 3 of the world’s species of bats and live only in Latin America.
• Bats are not blind and many have excellent vision.
• Bats do not attack people. Bats are quite timid; however, they will defend themselves. The biggest health risk that people face from bats is their own fearful reaction to them. More people injure themselves in their frenzied escapes from bats swooping for insects than are ever harmed by them.
• Most bats are predators of night-flying insects, like mosquitoes.
• Guano (bat droppings) makes excellent fertilizer. However, you should avoid using a bucket or deep container to catch the droppings under a roost. Bat pups may fall out of the house and become trapped inside the container.
• A single little brown bat can consume more than 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. Consider that a modest colony of 75 bats can devour up to 75,000 insects in a single hour. A single chamber house of BCI design can hold a colony of 50 little brown bats; while larger nursery boxes (like the 4 chamber nursery box) can house hundreds.
• Bats have been known to live more than 30 years!
• Bats in some parts of the world can have wingspans up to 6 feet! In the U.S., the largest bat is the Western Mastiff with a wingspan measuring in at 2 feet. Then there are some bats weighing less than a single penny.
• Most bats cannot take flight from the ground. They must drop 2 or 3 feet before they can fly.
• Bats do not hunt you down to jump in your hair and get tangled. I can only imagine some poor woman had a random encounter with a bat to start this rumor.
• Putting up a bat house will not encourage bats to move into your attic.  If your attic is a suitable roost and accessible, they’re already there. Likewise, putting up a bat house will not keep them out of your attic. Bats find a habitat where they can and any opportunity will be seized. A bat house should be included in any plan to exclude an existing colony from a structure.  If you don’t provide a place for the evicted colony, they could be forced to roost in less attractive areas such as behind gutters or they could die.
• Bats do not interfere with birds. They rarely compete for the same food and do not occupy the same areas