Bats in Your Attic

Bats peeling out from under the gable at dusk, dark staining running down the siding, chittering in the wall on a hot night — or one doing laps around your living room at two in the morning. Two things to know right up front: bats can't legally be exterminated in Pennsylvania, and there's a stretch of the year when they can't legally be removed at all. Neither one means you're stuck with them.

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Why Bats Are Handled Differently Than Any Other Wildlife

Pennsylvania's bats are protected, and several species are in serious trouble — white-nose syndrome has killed bats in the northeast on a scale that's hard to overstate, and the northern long-eared bat carries federal endangered status. There is no legal extermination option, and frankly there shouldn't be: a single bat eats enormous numbers of insects nightly, including the mosquitoes we get paid to control.

Exclusion, Not Removal

The method is a one-way door: a device fitted over the main exit during the day, which lets the bats out when they leave that night and prevents re-entry. Every other opening gets sealed first. No trapping, no chemicals, no handling of the animals.

Timing Is Legally Restricted

Exclusion cannot be performed while pups are present and flightless — the maternity season, generally May through July in Pennsylvania. Sealing during that window walls flightless young inside to die, which is both inhumane and prohibited. We confirm current-season guidance before scheduling, and if you call in June we will tell you to wait.

Guano Matters

Accumulated droppings can support Histoplasma, a fungus associated with respiratory illness when disturbed dust is inhaled. Long-occupied attics need proper remediation with correct protective equipment — not a shop vac and a dust mask on a Saturday.

Rabies Reality

Most bats do not have rabies, but bats are the most common source of human rabies cases in the U.S., and their bites can be too small to notice. That's why any direct contact — or a bat found in a room with a sleeping person, child, or pet — is a call to your doctor and the health department, not a wait-and-see.

How a Bat Job Actually Runs

1. Inspection

Interior attic assessment plus an exterior survey for staining, guano, and gaps to find the primary exits — bats use openings as small as a finger's width.

2. Seal Every Secondary Opening

All entry points except the primary exits get closed first: ridge and gable vents, soffit and fascia gaps, chimney flashing, louvers, and construction seams. Miss one and the exclusion simply relocates the colony inside your house.

3. Install One-Way Devices

Fitted over the main exits during the day, while the colony is inside and settled. The bats then leave on their own after dark and can't get back in. Devices stay up long enough for the entire colony to clear — days, not hours. Rushing this is the most common failed-exclusion story we get called to fix after someone else's attempt.

4. Confirm, Then Close

We verify no activity remains before removing the devices and permanently sealing those final openings. This is the step that turns a temporary fix into a permanent one.

5. Clean Up

Guano removal, contaminated insulation handling where warranted, and treatment for the ectoparasites bats can leave behind. Scoped honestly — some attics need a full remediation, plenty only need the droppings removed.

Service Area

We serve Dauphin, Cumberland, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties — including:

Harrisburg, Paxtang, Penbrook, Steelton, Highspire, Middletown, Hummelstown, Hershey, Palmyra, Annville, Cleona, Lebanon, Grantville, Linglestown, Colonial Park, Susquehanna Township, Lower Paxton, Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, Lemoyne, New Cumberland, Wormleysburg, Enola, Marysville, Halifax, Millersburg, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Mount Wolf, Manchester, Dillsburg, Carlisle, Boiling Springs, and surrounding Central PA communities.

Bat FAQ

There's a bat flying around inside my house right now. What do I do?

Get people and pets out of the room and close the interior doors. Open an exterior window or door in that room, turn off the lights, and give it a chance to leave on its own — most will. Don't swat at it or handle it bare-handed. If anyone may have been bitten, or if it was in a room with a sleeping person, small child, or unvaccinated pet, contact your doctor and the health department promptly — the bat may need to be safely contained for testing rather than released.

Can you just come get them out today?

If it's maternity season, no — and any company that says yes is either about to break the rules or about to seal flightless pups in your attic, which will smell exactly as bad as it sounds. We'll do the inspection and planning right away and schedule the exclusion for the first legal window.

Do bat houses help?

They can give an excluded colony somewhere to go, which we like — properly sited, they genuinely get used. They are not a substitute for exclusion, though; putting one up won't convince a colony to leave your attic voluntarily.

Will they come back next year?

Bats show strong fidelity to roosts and absolutely will return to a building they used before — which is why the sealing work is the whole job. A properly sealed structure keeps them out permanently; a half-sealed one gets them back next spring at a different gap.

How do I know it's bats and not something else?

Dusk activity around the roofline is the giveaway, plus small dark droppings that crumble to a glittery dust (insect wings) rather than the solid droppings of rodents. Daytime scratching overhead usually means squirrels. Text a photo of the droppings and we can usually tell you.