Wildlife division · Bats
Bats in the attic.
Bats are protected, and there are stretches of the year when a roost legally can't be sealed. We're Bat Standards Certified through NWCOA and our Virginia permit covers bat work — so we can tell you what's allowed right now, do the exclusion properly, and clean up the guano.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front
Signs of a bat roost
Bats are quieter than people expect. Most homeowners don't hear them at all — they see the evidence, or they notice the traffic at dusk.
- Guano — small dark pellets piled below an entry point, on the siding, on a deck rail, or in the attic insulation
- Dark, greasy staining around a gap, vent or soffit seam, from fur brushing the same spot night after night
- Bats emerging from one point on the house around sunset — the single most useful thing you can watch for
- Faint chittering or scratching in a wall or attic, usually at dusk or just before dawn
- A sharp ammonia smell building up over a season
- A single bat loose in the living space — often a young one that got lost inside
A bat in your living space right now? Call (826) 203-0343 — we prioritize it. Don't try to catch it by hand.
The part most companies get wrong
There's a season when sealing a roost is the wrong thing to do.
Bats raise their young in summer maternity colonies, and for several weeks the pups can't fly. Seal the entry during that window and you haven't solved anything — you've shut flightless young inside a wall to die, and driven the adults to find another way in, often into the living space.
What this means for you: bat exclusion is seasonal work. Through the summer maternity period we can inspect, quote and plan the job — but the exclusion itself waits until the young are flying. Any company willing to seal your roost in midsummer without mentioning this is either uninformed or hoping you are.
Bats in Virginia are protected, and several species are in serious decline. That isn't a technicality we're hiding behind — it's the reason the work is licensed, and the reason we're certified to do it.
Why we're the ones to call for this
Wild Bunch is Bat Standards Certified through the National Wildlife Control Operators Association, and our Virginia Commercial Nuisance Animal Permit specifically authorizes bat work. Between them, those cover the legal timing restrictions, the exclusion method, and the guano cleanup afterwards. A lot of companies that will happily take a squirrel job cannot legally do this one properly.
How a bat exclusion actually works
1. Find every exit, not just the obvious one
A bat can use a gap around three-eighths of an inch wide — a lifted flashing edge, a gap where the chimney meets the siding, an unscreened ridge vent, a shrunk soffit seam. Colonies often use several. Miss one and the exclusion simply fails, so the inspection covers the whole envelope rather than stopping at the first entry we find.
2. They fly out on their own
Bats are never trapped and never handled. We fit one-way exclusion devices over the active exits — sleeves or netting that let a bat drop out and fly off but give it nothing to climb back into — and every other gap on the building gets sealed first, so those devices are the only route out. The colony leaves to feed over the following nights and simply doesn't come back. Nobody touches a bat at any point, which is exactly how it should go.
3. Seal, then clean up
Once we're confident the roost is empty, the devices come off and those openings are closed permanently. Then the guano: an established roost leaves a deposit in the insulation that carries a genuine health risk, and it is not something to sweep out yourself on a Saturday. We handle the cleanup as part of the job.
Bat questions we get asked
Is it legal to kill bats in Virginia?
No. Bats are protected, and several Virginia species are in decline. The lawful approach is exclusion — letting them leave and preventing their return — done outside the maternity period. Our permit specifically authorizes bat work and we'll explain exactly what's allowed for your situation before we start.
There's a bat flying around inside my house right now.
Call us and say so — we prioritize it. In the meantime, shut the door to that room, open an exterior door or window if it's safe to, and turn the lights down so it can find its way out. Don't try to catch it barehanded, and don't let anyone else in the house handle it either.
Do I really need the guano cleaned up?
If it's an established roost, yes. Accumulated guano is a health risk to disturb, it soaks into and ruins insulation, and it holds an odour that keeps attracting bats back to the site. We clean it up as part of the exclusion rather than leaving you with it.
Can you do the work in the summer?
We can inspect, quote and schedule any time. The sealing itself has to wait until the young are flying, because closing a roost with flightless pups inside is both illegal and a guarantee of dead animals in your walls. We'll tell you where the calendar sits when you call.
How do bats get in through such small gaps?
They don't need to chew anything — they only need a gap about three-eighths of an inch. That's a shrunk soffit seam, a lifted piece of flashing, or the gap where a chimney meets siding. It's why bat exclusion is much more about thorough sealing than about the animals themselves.
Related
Get the roost looked at before the season closes on it.
We'll tell you what the law allows right now, and what the job involves.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front