Bat House Forum

[Erik]

Hi there,

I am posting this question in the " Everything else"-corner, because I think bat repellents are a bit tricky...

First a short explanation: In the Netherlands all bats are heavy protected by law. Killing bats or destroying their roosts, important flight paths and important foraging areas is strictly prohibited. Working with the right procedures you are allowed to destroy roosts etc., but you have to do everything you can to avoid that bats are being killed and you have to make sure that new roosts are installed. I am an consultant for that kind of projects.
In the demolishing of buildings with roosts we have to make sure that the bats have left the building before the work has started. That is often quite easy and straightforward, but not always. With large or complex brick buildings it is hard to tell that all the bats have left.

I have noticed that some exclusion companies in the USA use ultrasonic bat repelling devices.
They claim that they work very well (http://www.ebatremoval.com/60-day-trial-offer/do-bat-removal-devices-work.

Something like that is also offered here for mice and rats, but they don't really work very well. Do these bat repelling devices really work?
They might be useful for making sure that a building is bat-free before it is demolished.

Thanks.

Erik

[kent borcherding]

Erik ,

I would be cautious of some of the claims for people selling ultrasonic bat repellers.

Bats are able to distinguish their own sounds they send out , if they were not able to do this would be a problem when a number of bat species were feeding in same area.

A park where I have a number of bat houses experimented placing ultrasonic repellers in one of the shelters , the park superintendent took a picture of some bats roosting on the device. Needles to say devices were removed.

When I give a bat talk to groups of people , I ask if anyone has the devices , if they do I ask if they also have dogs . When they have dogs I ask if the dogs are losing their hearing , everyone that had the devices and dogs , the dogs were deaf or losing their hearing .

Dogs are able to hear the ultrasonic sound from the devices. Similar to you being exposed to constant loud noise.

BCI , Merlin Tuttle , has also commented on the use of the devices and deafness in dogs.