Why Is Looking in Your Attic For Bats Not Enough?
You’ve looked in your loft, you can’t see any bats. Your property must be bat free, right?
Checking your attic for bats is not enough to be sure if bats are present or not. Scottish bats roost in many places we can’t easily see (if at all), and the Bat Survey Guidelines outline specific steps we need to take to be sure if bats are roosting in your property.
First, bats use more than just attics for roosting.
Brown long-eared bats are more visible than our other bat species, but they are still very difficult to spot in an attic using just a visual once-over.
Often when we think about a bat roost, we think about a colony hanging from the rafters in a dark attic. In Scotland, this is far from the norm. For example…
Pipistrelle bats (both common and soprano) are our most common house-dwelling bats, but they are known for being specialist crevice roosters. They can fit into gaps as small as 10-15mm under lead flashing, under roof tiles, gaps in soffit boards, or even small cracks in walls and masonry. They are roosting in places that simply cannot be seen unless you know the entrance - which would be no bigger than the width of your pinky finger!
Brown long-eared bats can sometimes roost in visible spots, but more often than not they are tucked into corners and apexes of large roof voids of older buildings. They are likely to be tucked in behind wooden beams or other structures giving them cover and protection.
These are just two of our 10 bat species, so let’s zoom out and think about all of our bats. Even when bats are roosting in an attic here are a few other reasons you might not spot them…
Scottish bats are small, some just 4-5cm long. Even if they are visible, they can stay perfectly still and are easily missed by an untrained eye.
They tend to roost in tight gaps and cavities. Often they aren’t flying in your attic space at all. They could be in a cavity wall, under eaves, inside ridge tile caps, or behind external timber. A roost in your property, may not reach the inner areas of your home at all.
Roosts have small entrances and may leave no obvious signs. Entrances to roosts may be no bigger than your thumb-print, and there may be very few droppings and minimal staining. The only way to spot these roosts is to run a full bat survey.
Roost use is seasonal. Bat roosts are protected whether bats are present or not, and they move between roosts throughout the year. A maternity roost that is busy in summer will likely be empty for winter when the bats hibernate elsewhere. No bats today doesn’t mean no bats at other times!
Bat roosts are (usually) quiet and inconspicuous. Unlike birds or rodents bats don’t use nesting materials, opting for using existing structures. Their droppings quickly crumble into fine dust, and you are unlikely to hear or smell them unless you have a particularly large roost.
With this in mind, how do you find out of there are bat roosts in your property? We adhere to the Bat Survey Guidelines and they outline a two stage process…
How do you Know if You’ve Got Bats Roosting In Your Attic?
In short, you reach out to us and we will use our 17+ years’ of experience and knowledge to find out. If you want to get in touch with our team of ecologists, you can contact us at any time of year.
When you book us for bat surveys we will worth through the following two stages:
Daytime Bat Walkover (DBW)
AKA Preliminary Roost Assessment (PRA) or stage 1 bat survey.
One of our licenced ecologists will visit your site or property and complete a visual inspection inside and outside of the building (including roof spaces). This stage is all about determining the potential your property has for roosting bats, and it determines what happens next…
Bat Presence/Absence survey
AKA Bat Activity Survey (PRA) or stage 2 bat survey.
If your DBW finds potential for roosting bats, then we will arrange 1-3 night time surveys. These surveys are completed between May and September using our highly trained survey teams, and they look for bats entering or leaving your property in real time.
If you’d like to learn more, you can read about bat surveys in full here.
If you need a bat survey (or just think you might) get in touch with our team of specialist ecologists!
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