April 15 is an important date. Yes, your taxes are due soon. But it’s also the last day to legally evict pregnant bats from your home. While bats prefer to roost in trees, caves or other natural spaces, sometimes they are attracted to human-made structures. After April 15, it’s illegal to move any Florida bat species from their roosts until the end of summer.
Bat maternity season
April 15 to August 14 is maternity season for all of Florida’s 13 native bat species. During this time, they give birth and raise their young. It’s illegal to block bats from their roost during this time because flightless young can be trapped inside the structure and die. If you find bats before April 15, it’s time to get them out of your house or building and start making necessary repairs.
Related story: East Coast to Expect Falling Spiders This Summer
Female bats typically give birth to only one pup each year during maternity season, though there are a few species, such as the eastern red bat, in which females often give birth to twins. Females may prepare for maternity season by moving to a different roost site where they will give birth and raise their young until the young can fly. Such roosts are usually called maternity roosts and often have warmer temperatures than other roosts. Warmer maternity roosts help the juvenile bats, which are born without fur, to stay warm and grow faster.
Sometimes these warmer roosts end up being an abandoned building or even an attic crawl space. That’s when you need to get the bats to move.
How to extract bats
The best way to get rid of bats is by using an exclusion device. An exclusion device is a tube that acts as a one-way valve. They allow bats to exit the building but prevent them from returning. Any exclusion device must be left up for a minimum of four nights and should only be used when the overnight temperature is forecast to be at least 50ºF.
Here’s a comprehensive video from MyFWC Florida on how to deal with bats
Bats will sometimes get into the living spaces of a building, but the lights, the noise, and the people who are present there are all reasons bats try to leave those areas right away. However, they do sometimes roost in unoccupied areas of buildings, like an attic, or under a loose board. As long as people are keeping up with regular maintenance to ensure there are not small openings that a bat could use to enter unoccupied areas, then bats are unlikely to roost in buildings.
How to help bats in Florida
Bats are ecologically and economically beneficial. They serve critical functions worldwide because of their roles in insect pest control and as pollinators and seed dispersers. Plus, their guano can be a valuable fertilizer. Florida’s bats are insectivores and a single bat can eat hundreds of insects, including mosquitoes and other garden and agricultural pests, each night.
Florida is home to 13 resident bat species, including threatened species, such as the Florida bonneted bat. The Florida bonneted bat is Florida’s largest bat and one of the rarest bat in the world!
Florida’s bats face many challenges, including loss of natural roosting sites in trees and caves. Outside of Florida, a disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) has also killed millions of cave-roosting bats and is spreading rapidly. As of early 2018, WNS has not reached Florida, but it remains a serious threat.
Luckily, there are ways Floridians can make bats feel right at home:
- Preserve natural roost sites, including trees with cavities and peeling bark.
- Dead fronds left on palm trees can provide roosting spots for bats.
- Install a bat house on your property.
- Report unusual bat behavior to the FWC
More wildlife news: How to Make Your Backyard Friendly For Native Florida Wildlife
