Will the city or county animal services help me with a bat issue?

Having bats swarming around your home or, God forbid, living in your home can really destroy the luster and beauty of your property. This is especially true if you have a large colony living in your home. They not only make a bunch of racket, but they will leave a mess, some of which can be quite dangerous to you and your family. Getting rid of them is obviously you priority.



The problem is that your local city or county animal control services is most likely not going to help you with this problem. Truthfully they just can’t. If you live in an area where bats are likely to enter your home and roost you can be sure that many of your friends and neighbors are having the same problem. If everyone got help from the county they would not have enough man hours to really do the job. It just isn’t possible.

You have to consider that the county or city looks at bats much in the same way that they would look at squirrels or raccoons. Yes, they are a nuisance, but they do not pose the same kind of danger that a lion or wolf would. In addition, a bat has an amazing sense of where it came from, so even if the county came out and get rid of the animal it would be quite possible that it would just return. This means that the job of getting rid of the bat is left up to you. You can either do the job yourself or hire a professional to do it so that they are gone for good.

While you are not very likely to get help from your local agencies, there is one instance where that may change. If you are able to see that bats from a colony look sick or are acting in a bizarre way it most likely means that the bat and maybe even a significant number of its colony is afflicted with an illness that could be dangerous to the entire ecosystem. They could infect many other animals and human beings as well, so the county or city is more inclined to take action then.

A bat is most likely sick if it is unable to fly straight, you see it out in the daylight, or you can see such things as foaming at the mouth. If you see this happing then call animal control.

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