We remove wildlife that found its way into your home or business as well as seal and eliminate entry points around the home.
Bat Removal in Florida: Safe, Legal & Humane Exclusion Solutions
In Florida, bats play a vital role in the ecosystem by consuming thousands of insects each night, including mosquitoes. While they are beneficial in the wild, bats can pose health risks and cause property damage when they roost in your home. Accumulated bat droppings (guano) can harbor harmful fungi and produce strong, unpleasant odors.
Because bats are a protected species in Florida, their removal is carefully regulated and must be handled by licensed experts who understand state laws, especially those governing maternity season. For over 50 years, Turner Pest Control has been a trusted wildlife exclusion provider across Florida, offering safe, effective, and fully compliant bat removal services. Our team specializes in legal bat exclusion, structural sealing, and biohazard cleanup to restore and protect your home completely.
Whether you live in coastal communities like Jacksonville and Tampa or inland areas such as Orlando and Gainesville, Florida homeowners regularly face bat infestations due to the state’s warm climate and abundant natural roosting sites. Turner’s certified wildlife specialists deliver bat removal services statewide, ensuring every case is handled safely, legally, and effectively.
Florida’s Bat Problem: Laws, Protections & Why You Need Licensed Experts
Unlike general pests, bats are federally and state-protected, especially during the critical maternity season (typically April 15th to August 15th in Florida). During this time, it is illegal to perform any bat extraction that might trap non-flying pups inside the structure, leading to severe odor issues.
This legal constraint means professional removal must adhere to a strict window of operation. Our methods focus entirely on bat exclusion, using specialized one-way doors that allow bats to exit the structure at dusk but prevent them from re-entering. Bats are masters of entry, able to squeeze through gaps as small as 3/8 of an inch (the size of a dime), making their intrusion difficult to spot and their complete removal technically challenging without professional expertise.
How to Identify a Bat Infestation in Your Florida Home
You often won't see bats enter your home, but the signs of their presence are usually clear, highly concentrated, and require immediate action:
Acoustic and Visual Clues
- Exit/Entry Sightings: The clearest sign is observing bats exiting or re-entering your structure during a short window around dusk or dawn, often from small cracks or vents.
- Sounds in the Attic: Listen for high-pitched squeaking, scratching, or faint fluttering, typically heard just as the sun sets or rises, created by the colony's activity.
- Oily Rub Marks: As bats repeatedly use a single entry point, natural oils from their fur leave dark, greasy, brownish-black smear marks on the exterior of your home, usually near gaps or joints.
Bat Droppings (Guano) Accumulation
Guano, or more commonly known as bat droppings, is the most hazardous and unmistakable sign of bats.
- Location: Guano accumulates beneath the primary entry point on exterior walls or, inside the attic, piles up on the floor insulation, often near vents.
- Appearance: Bat guano is small, dark, and shiny; unlike rodent droppings, it is dry and fragile, crumbling into dust when gently touched. Heavy accumulation inside the attic is a major health and structural concern.
If you find any evidence of bat droppings, contact a professional for bat removal immediately. Never attempt to clean it yourself due to the serious health risks.
Health & Structural Risks of Bat Infestations in Florida Homes
A bat colony introduces severe health risks and poses long-term threats to the structural integrity and value of your Florida home:
Health Risks
The main health risk comes from a fungus that grows in bat droppings. When the droppings are disturbed, tiny spores can become airborne and cause Histoplasmosis—a lung infection that can lead to coughing, fever, and other flu-like symptoms if inhaled.
Bats are also known carriers of the Rabies virus, making any contact highly dangerous. Safe cleanup and bat extraction must be handled exclusively by licensed professionals.
Property Damage
Large colonies produce hundreds of pounds of bat droppings, which can structurally threaten rafters and collapse ceilings. Bat urine saturates wood and insulation, leading to potent odors, wood rot, and destruction of the insulation itself. This long-term contamination requires costly full remediation after the bat elimination services are complete.
Why Florida Homeowners Trust Turner for Professional Bat Removal & Exclusion Services
Dealing with bats requires expertise, respect for wildlife laws, and technical precision. Turner Pest Control is the trusted choice for bat removal because our process is comprehensive, legal, and guaranteed:
- Legal and Timed Inspection: Our licensed wildlife removal experts will perform a meticulous, multi-point inspection to locate every potential entry point. We confirm the species and determine the optimal, legal timeframe for bat extraction, strictly adhering to Florida's maternity season guidelines.
- Minimally Invasive Bat Exclusion (One-Way Devices): It is illegal to kill bats. Therefore, we install custom-fabricated, one-way exclusion devices over the primary entry points. These specialized tools allow the entire colony to safely exit the structure at dusk to feed, but effectively prevent their return at dawn.
- Sealing and Bat Exclusion: Once all bats are confirmed to be gone, the one-way devices are removed. Our team then permanently seals all entry points and vulnerabilities, utilizing durable, weather-resistant materials to thoroughly secure your home against future intrusion. This guaranteed exclusion work ensures lasting bat elimination services.
- Bat Droppings Remediation and Restoration: The final, vital step involves safely removing all hazardous bat droppings and the contaminated insulation. Using specialized respiratory equipment, we decontaminate the attic space, eliminating the risk of lung infections, like Histoplasmosis, and fully restoring your home to a clean, healthy state.
If you are searching for a local bat exterminator or a trusted wildlife removal expert, Turner Pest Control has you covered. Our licensed and certified technicians specialize in safe bat removal and exclusion — the only legal and effective long-term solution.
How to Prevent Bats from Roosting in Your Florida Home
The most effective bat control measure is proactive exclusion before a colony has a chance to establish itself:
- Seal Small Gaps: Routinely inspect your roofline, gable vents, fascia boards, and chimney flashing. Use caulk, weatherproof sealant, and mesh screening to close any gap larger than a half-inch.
- Install Chimney Caps and Screens: Ensure all vents and the chimney flue are properly covered with durable screens and caps to eliminate common entry points.
- Eliminate Light Spillage: Bats are often drawn to insects swarming around exterior lighting. Switch to yellow or sodium vapor lights, which are less attractive to insects, thus deterring the bats' food source.
For additional protection, explore our Florida attic insulation services to restore contaminated spaces after bat activity and prevent future intrusions.
Schedule Bat Removal Services Today
The presence of a bat colony is a serious issue requiring immediate professional intervention. Don’t delay—the longer the colony stays, the more hazardous bat droppings accumulate. Trust the specialized process, legal compliance, and guaranteed exclusion provided by Turner Pest Control.
Don’t wait until odors, stains, or guano buildup cause costly structural repairs. Contact Turner Pest Control today for licensed, humane bat removal in Florida. Call 800-225-5305 or schedule your free inspection online for guaranteed exclusion and complete attic restoration.
Florida Bat Removal FAQs
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What do exterminators do to get rid of bats?
Turner’s professional team does not exterminate bats, as they are a federally and state-protected species. Instead, we perform legal bat exclusion. We start with a full, detailed inspection to locate all entry points, including those as small as a dime. Then, we install one-way exclusion devices—like specialized tubes or netting—that allow the bats to perform their nightly bat extraction but permanently prevent them from re-entering your structure. Once the colony is confirmed gone, we permanently seal the openings and safely perform cleanup and damage remediation.
Can bats come back after removal?
Bats possess extremely strong homing instincts and will certainly try to return to their original roosting spot. However, with guaranteed professional bat exclusion performed by Turner, the bats physically cannot come back because all known and potential entry points and vulnerabilities are thoroughly and permanently sealed with durable, chew-proof materials like metal flashing and mesh. We ensure the lasting effectiveness of our bat removal services against their persistent attempts to re-enter, which is crucial for long-term protection.
How much does pest control for bats cost?
The cost of pest removal for bats is highly variable, depending mainly on the size of the colony, the number of hard-to-reach entry points needing sealing, and the extensive nature of hazardous bat dropping cleanup and structural damage restoration required. A small colony removal may be on the lower end, but complex bat elimination services with full attic biohazard remediation can be a significant investment. Turner offers a complimentary, detailed inspection to provide a precise, no-obligation estimate tailored to your home’s specific circumstances and needs.
How can I tell if bats are in my walls?
Bats inside wall voids are usually indicated by distinct dark, greasy rub marks on the exterior siding around small gaps, and the presence of bat droppings scattered along the wall base, often leading into a concentrated pile. You may also hear faint, high-pitched chirping, squeaking, or scratchy rustling sounds coming from inside the wall, especially around the crepuscular hours of dusk or dawn, as the bats prepare for their nightly flight to feed.
What time of year is best for bat exclusion?
The best time for legal bat exclusion in Florida is strictly outside of the official bat maternity season, which runs from April 15th through August 15th. During this illegal period, removing or trapping bats is prohibited because flightless young may be trapped inside, leading to a severe odor and a public health issue. Therefore, the safest and most effective time for professional bat removal is the window from August 16th through April 14th, ensuring the entire colony can be humanely evicted and the exclusion is compliant with FWC regulations.