Bat's coming in the house

The other thread was locked but I wanted to share, we get bats in our house in the summer all the time. That's because we sit on the porch and leave the door open. Before we shoo them out we let them eat any bugs that might be in the house, they are kind of cool little critters.

ive had 2 in the house. the first one i caught with my leather gloves and released. the second freaked me out because my stove wasn't installed yet and i had a sheet metal cover over the chimney hole on the first floor. i was working on the hearth when i stood up and saw a wing come out between the wall and the cover. i whacked the cover out of startled reaction and i cut it's wing off. anyway im assuming it fell to the bottom of the chimney in the basement but i'll be darned if i was going down there in the dark only to come across a really pi$#ed off one armed vampire.

We had a few in our other house, finally found it, under an overhang where the roof comes together, there was a small gap in the molding/shingles, then they would get down in the wall and work their way to the basement and back up....geesh crazy little things. Kept the Racket Ball racket and leather gloves handy all the time.

We've had many in here over the past 18 years. Once I woke up during the night and saw one circling around in the bedroom. I found an opening in the attic where they were coming in, fixed that. They can always find another way in, though. Just like the %&*# mice.

the pellet gun does wonders getting rid of mice. i have 2 cats but i think they may be union. (always want more food and never want to work)

These are what plague my house! Ive been dealing with them for 3 years now (since I bought the house). My neighbors tell me that the old owners used to say that my house was haunted but apperently they never heard of a rat trap before. I shouldnt be so waste ful and try to save the fur off these little guys, maybe my 18 month old would like a fur coat. I feel I should add I dont normally kill anything that isnt trying to kill me but the noises in the attic at 3am are too much. My father who is professional trapper cant find how they are getting in so this is what Im left with.......bodies. Jim

At least your squirels are dumb enough to get caught in the rat traps.

I have a red squirel, who I have named Lucifer... cause he is a little devil.. He is in the crawlspace under the house, there is no way to seal up the house or basement/crawlspace. Lucifer chews his way into the house from below. and has ignored the rat traps the live traps, he did leave behind some fur on one of the 'glue sheet traps'. But that is it... He is so damned smart!!

He gets into the Laundry room where I keep the dog food and chews his way through any kind of plastic container to get to the dog food. and he Knows when the new bag of Purina shows up, he'll be there that night and chew a hole in the new bag.

I finally found a short galvanized trash can that I store the food in, but Lucifer has even been gnawing on the lid of the galvanized can!!

In the live trap and on the rat traps I've tried, peanut butter, dog food, marshmallows, different lunchmeats. and every other concoction I have heard of. Right now I have some dog food stuck to peanut butter on a dowel over a five gallon pail of water, hoping he will go after the dog food, and fall into the pail, and won't get out..

He generally just ignores any traps or placed food, he likes dog food in the new bag, and the stored dog food in the plastic pail, that he has chewed holes in.

I've shot several of his cousins eating bird food in the breaze-way, but have never seen Lucifer in the laundry room only seen the aftermath of his visits...

any ideas on bait or traps??? I'm about to leave a pan of ethylene glycol in the crawlspace for his 'pleasure'.

Greg L

Buy , find, steal or borrow a good mousing cat. I had the same probelem last year . I had about 18 of the little devils in my garage chewing on stuffr. I got rid of all but 1 smart one by either shooting or trapping them. I borrowed the neighbors outdoor cat for a weekend lets say the cat won the battle but it sure made a mess of the place with things knocked over like a twister went through.

LsFarm wrote:I have a red squirel, who I have named Lucifer... cause he is a little devil.. He is in the crawlspace under the house, there is no way to seal up the house or basement/crawlspace. Lucifer chews his way into the house from below. and has ignored the rat traps the live traps, he did leave behind some fur on one of the 'glue sheet traps'. But that is it... He is so damned smart!!

Squirrels are very smart and they learn quite rapidly. I saw this on PBS or somewhere:

Hey Greg, Of the two most productive traps weve had in the attic one just had a modified trigger( with a small piece of cardboard I mentioned in an old post) and on that all we did was put some scent concentrate...I think black walnut scent, and that trap has killed probably8 of the 13 or 14 Ive gotten so far.the other just had a whole peanut secured to the trigger with a twist tie. It hardly seems fair the poor bastards havent even got to eat the peanut at all and that trap has killed 4 of them. Ethylene sounds like a plan to me though if Lucifer is that trap resistant. A buddy of mine tells me that a farmer up the road from him uses ferrets in his barn to keep all the little furries at bay. They are supposedly really smart and they live in the house when not doing battle. see ya Jim

you might want to try the sticky glue traps get a new bag of dog food (since you said that seems to be his preference) surround the bag with glue traps. probably 4 or 5 will do.

we usually see them "down in da hole"

as for the squirrel problem check this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRR4bOquEKQ

All you need now is a board with spikes in it to launch the squirrel into.

i must have 1,000 or so bats in the barn. never had one in the house , yet lol. i did have a family of flying squirrels in the attic. they only come out at night so i never saw them. when they have young they don't kick them out. just one big happy family. i guess there very rare. cute little guys though. as far as mice go , i have none ever in the house. they may sneak in , but i have 2 or 3 corn snakes that lovem. one skin i measuered it was 4' long lol.