Most conflicts with Bats in Chicago occur when the bats form colonies in buildings, particularly the attics of homes. This is a common behavior, because the females seek out warm places in which to raise their young. When the bats live in a building, they create a considerable amount of droppings and urine, which not only cause a bad odor, but which can corrode wood and worse, pose a biohazardous risk. The bats can also cause significant noise when in high numbers. Once bats find a suitable maternity roost, they will stay there pretty much forever. That is, each new generation will return to that same area, and each bat can live up to 20 years. Because of the low mortality rate, bat colonies effectively double in size each year that they are left ignored. Suddenly your small bat problem is a large one. Many of the bat calls come in the warmer months, when the new young are just learning how to fly. This is because the size of the colony has just doubled, and because the inexperienced young will often enter the house.
If you notice a bat or multiple bats in your home or commercial building, call us and we will remove the problem and eliminate the possibility of re-entry. Rest assured, one call to Chicago’s Green Trapper will ensure you never worry about your bat problems again.
Bats roost during the day, oftentimes in colonies inside buildings, and emerge at dusk to drink water and feed on insects. These bats can eat almost half of their body weight in insects per night. They primarily consume beetles and moths. The young are born in summer, usually in June. They are born large and grow quickly, and are able to fly within about 7-8 weeks. These bats usually form what are called maternity colonies – large groups of female bats that roost together and raise their young together. These maternity colonies can be as small as 30 members, or as many as several thousand, space permitting. They mate in the autumn, but delay fertilization until spring. Depending on the conditions in the roost, the bats may migrate elsewhere in winter in order to hibernate, or they may stay put. Bats are in the order Chioptera, meaning hand-wing, and are of course flying mammals. They are not related to rodents.
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