Raleigh's Best Bat Removal

How to find and remove a dead bat

A bat in your attic is never too much fun, but when said bat goes ahead and dies on your property, things suddenly go from bad to a whole lot worse. Live bats can cause quite a bit of damage to your home, mostly through their waste (which is corrosive and riddled with disease). But they can also be a bother to you, the homeowner, after they die. So in this article, we'll talk a bit about how to find and remove a dead bat from your property.

First things first, what damage can a dead bat cause?

It stands to reason that a live bat puts you, your family, and pets (not to mention your property) at risk. But if it's dead, how much damage can it do? The answer is quite a bit, even so. One of the most obvious problems that a dead bat can lead to is the smell. As the bat's body begins to decompose, the stench will spread throughout the house, making it unbearable to live inside the house anymore.

Even worse, the decomposing body may also attract other predators, potentially causing you a much larger problem than the existence of one small bat. So you'll want to find the dead bat and remove it as swiftly as possible. But how do you do that?

What you'll need…

First, it's important to equip yourself adequately before you attempt to tackle a dead bat. Bats are big carriers of disease, and handling one barehanded can expose you and your loved ones to serious illness. So you will need:

• Thick leather gloves (gardening gloves may work);
  Towels;
  A small box to place the bat in;
  A piece of cardboard;
  Net (optional).

Finding and removing the bat

Before you proceed, you want to make sure you are protected. This means wearing the gloves and ensuring that other parts of the body that might become accidentally exposed to the bat or its waste are thoroughly covered in disposable material. For example, you don't want to wear a shirt that may get stained and that you like, because then you will have to dispose of it. You can't risk carrying around bat waste on your clothes, because it can seriously endanger you and your loved ones.

Usually, one can trace the smell to find a dead bat. If you're unsure where the bat might be, try the most common bat dwellings, such as the attic for example. Tread carefully and do a thorough check. Remember that a dead bat is tiny and may be easy to miss, particularly in poor lighting conditions.

Once located, use your gloved hands to pick up the dead bat and place it in the box/container you've chosen for the job. You may also need the net or cardboard discussed above to capture the dead bat. Ideally, you'll want to use a container that can be sealed, in the interest of safety. This container is also non-reusable, so make sure you don't place the bat in an important box because you will not be able to wash out the dead bat. What you do next will depend on you, largely. You can bury the bat, or you can dispose of it with your trash, provided it's inside the sealed container, and can't become a risk to whoever's handling the trash.

In general, you don't want to bury a dead bat on your property, as it risks being dug up accidentally, maybe even by your beloved pet.

When disposing of a dead bat, look for additional bat parts, such as a displaced wing, to make sure no part of the bat lingers. Also look for other dead bats in the corpse's vicinity, as this is quite a common occurrence.

Once the dead bat is safely out of the way, we urge that you run a thorough cleanup of the area.