Bats in my chimney?? Help!

Hello, I'm just wondering if any of you have had experiences with bats. One day I heard what I thought was chirping coming from the fire place, and thought a bird family had built a nest somewhere at the top. However, one of my friends came over last week and said he though it was BATS! Of course, I've been having nightmares ever since. I even put the fire grate flat against the opening so they wouldn't be able to fly into the house.

I looked at home depot, and couldn't seem to find any sort of bat repellant. I did find a device that emits a high pitched noise, but it's for rodents. (Are bats rodents? I doubt it!) Anyhow, any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated. So far, I haven't been brave enough to stick my head in there to find out what's really going on. I always imagine the worst - bats flying at my head!

hmmm... maybe you should crank up the AC and have a fire. ;)

j/k, I haven't a clue what to do about bats in chimneys.

Check this site out .. might help

http://www.batmanagement.com/Batcentral/eviction/evict2.html

X

I had bats in my belfry once, but thats another thread.....

lol! I was tempted to toss some logs in the fire place and make some smores, but then decided that seemed a bit cruel. :)

Thanks for the site link, xeramtheum! We are investigating, using that as a guideline. Not 100% sure we have bats yet, but something is making a ton of racket in there!

Bats are your best friend with White flies and any other flying plant predator. They are a human health risk due to Rabies but they are my best friends and I would provide a chimmney home near by to get them out of the chimmney and into another place of hiding. They are wonderful garden friends. Bats only make noise when they are waking and leaving their resting area. I have never heard a bat. Probably you have swallows. Do you have large amounts of white stuff running down the chimmney? LOL

Ignote, bats' vocalizing is barely audible to humans: most is in the ultrasonic range. If the chirping is fairly loud, I'd suspect swallows or, more likely, chimney swifts: swifts make quite a racket all day every day until the kids fledge. Both swallows and chimney swifts are protected by federal law, so please don't start a fire. In a few weeks, the young will fledge and leave - and you should then put on a chimney cap to prevent future wildlife visits!

Thanks for the great info, guys! We just moved into the house last fall, and were so busy with settling in that we never got around to having a chimney cap installed before it snowed. It's a "must" on this fall's to-do list though!

I haven't seen the droppings yet, as the flu is closed - I'm not looking forward to opening it, either!! Eeew.

And our chimney residents are pretty noisy, and not just at night. So, we must have some other type of critter.

Here's some info about chimney swifts, and this site has a sound file you can play to see if it matches your current housepartners:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Chimney_Swift.html#sound

Only time I ever saw chimney swifts was when I took a purple martin to a bird rehabber. He'd just received a nest full of baby chimney swifts somebody had removed (no idea how they did that.) Those little guys were remarkable, a nest full of open mouths!

Good link, though the nests I've encountered sounded a LOT louder/more piercing, no doubt because the whole brood was doing it at once - all day. Someone described it as sounding like aliens had landed in your chimney.. It really is annoying to homeowners, but thankfully doesn't last long before they fledge - and swifts are becoming fairly rare because of habitat loss. Bats very rarely are found in chimneys - though they love attics - so I just don't think bats are your culprits, ignote.

I agree - no bats. If noise is audible, no bats. Especially in the daytime: they are sleeping.

Local yellow pages for chimney sweeps will take care of your bird infestation.

I used to have swifts nest in my chimney when I lived in Florida .. I swear the mothers would throw their babies down the flue cause they knew I would raise them. I must have raised successfully over 100 swift babies before finally putting a grill over the chimney.

An interesting note about swifts .. they literally glue their nests to the walls of the chimney with spit. In Asia, Birds Nest Soup is made from Cave Swift nests that have been rendered down with water.

It occurs to me also, that if you do have bats, you probably would be smelling an ammonia smell from the droppings.

X

A chimney sweep would be violating federal law and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by disturbing the nest or young Chimney Swifts. Not to mention that it would be cruel, unfortunate and just plain wrong to kill them.

Mark

Bats are audible during the day time. They do make small squeak squeak noises during the day. You won't hear bats in the house at night because they are out flying around and are not at home. You can hear bat noises during the day.

I would watch your chimney from outdoors. Do you see swifts coming in and out during the day and swooping around your yard. Or watch the chimney in early evening and look for the bats heading out for the evening....

Although both bats and swifts are great insect eaters and a friend to have around, its best to provide them housing somewhere else besides your chimney. The poo from bats is particularly damaging. And a build up stuff, like nests and poo, can be a fire hazard in your chimney.

It takes a large quantity of critters or extended duration of bird or bat droppings to accumulate to the point where you would smell ammonia in the house.

Chimney Swift nests can be cleaned out late in the fall after the birds have migrated south for the winter, or early in spring before they return, without violating the migratory bird laws.

After you get the chimney cleaned - get the vent screen installed...

Yup, a nice old mesh cap installed on that chimney some time in early winter after they migrate would be a great idea.

Well, we still have the noise in the chimney! I'm fairly certain we have swifts, after listening to the audio and reading about them. I haven't seen them go in or out of the chimney from outside though.

Interesting about building the nests with spit - don't think I'd want to eat it, though! I think I like my food a little more... boring. ;)

An easy try , put a radio - speaker in fireplace turn up volume and go shopping - you will probably have to try different stations to find one they don't like .
I heard someone tell someone else that those plug-in bug repellers also iratate Bats and Blue Jays . [ at OSH display at county fair . ]

Tonyjr, I don't think ignote should try repellents while there are still babies in the chimney. For one thing, it violates the federal Migratory Bird Act; for another, if the babies aren't old enough to fly, they will die in there if the parents are chased away. I really don't think ignote wants toasted, long-dead baby birds dropping into the fireplace next time he lights a fire! His first post on this problem was ten days ago; try to hang in there, ignote, the babies should fledge and fly out of there in another week or two. And when all has been quiet in the chimney for a couple days, be sure to call someone to put a cap on it pronto.

Well, yes I do have bat experience. Equilibrum above has the best advice.
If they really are bats and you don't want them, you need to put a mesh box over your chiminey, then relocate the bats when they come out--usually early evening. Bats are very nice to have in the garden since they eat so many nasty bugs. But, if they get in your attic they make bat guano, which also is very nice in the garden, but not in the attic. It soon accumulates and makes a stinky mess (actually has a fruity smell from all the fruit they eat. If you don't want the bats in your attic, you will have to go up there and find out how they are getting it. Just watch in the early evening and they will show you how they are getting in and out. You have to block the holes with window screen and/or spray foam insulation. After you trap them you need to relocate them. Before, bat day, when you catch them, you need to build a bat house in the garden. This can just be a shady place, where they can hang out during the day. Here, they like to hang out behind the window shutters. So that gives you an idea what the bat house needs to be like. In fact, I think Martha Stewart has directions for building a bat house. Search her web site. Good luck and don't fall off the roof.

You can also check www.batcon.org (Bat Conservation Internatl.) for all kinds of good information on bats, excluding bats from houses, plans for building bat houses, buying pre-built houses, etc., etc.

Thanks for all of the links and info, guys! Turns out I had chimney swifts, and they are gone now. Hooray!

Congratulations! Enjoy the peace and quiet, and don't forget to get that chimney capped ASAP before someone else moves in.