"You inspected my house about two months ago..."

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

...and last week my wife and I woke up and there were two bats in the bedroom".

I kind of laughed and didn't say much. Then he said "So we called the county health department and they said that some kinds of bats have teeth so sharp you can be bitten and not know it. They said bats carry rabies and they recommended that we both get rabies shots."

I stopped laughing and said "I'll call you back in fifteen minutes."

I called the county health department right away. He was right. If you wait to see if you develop rabies... if you do- you die. You're gambling your life if you don't get the shots. Then they told me that rabies shots are very painful, and for some people, very expensive.

Not a laughing matter at all. I called the client back and he was obviously looking hard to find someone to blame and to pay for the shots.
It turned out that- according to the bat removal guy- the bats had gotten into the attic through very small (1/4") cracks just under the eves of the 3-story home and there were just a few pellets of bat guano on the ground below, so there was zero chance that an inspector could have spotted this one.
Bats are serious business. They can fit through tiny openings. The evidence is guano- bat crap. As soon as they leave their roost they let 'em fly so watch for dark stains or piles outside potential roosts.

[David P. Valley]

Bat guano is pretty obvious in many situations. The bats hang from the center of the attic most of the time and in groups. So your looking for the huge piles of guano....




I remember one attic I did, where it was so bad I couldn't even see the insulation color.

[Michael Roberson]

My only incident with a single bat... It was hanging on the screen of the gable vent, on the OUTSIDE of the house. I tapped the screen to see if it moved, and it did. In the picture, you can see him hanging in the vent, and for the record, yes there was Knob and tube wiring.