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How Much Does It Cost to Remove Bats from an Attic? (2024 Update)

Bat

Over the last few years, there has been a decrease in natural bat habitats, leading to an increase in bats finding habitats in residential homes, farms, and gardens. Home attics are one of their favorite hiding spots, as they’re the closest thing to their typical environment.

As bats are dangerous and could carry lethal diseases, it is crucial to eliminate them from your attic if there’s an infestation. To remove bats from your attic, you’ll need to reach a licensed exterminator, and the price of their services can vary on several factors. On average, bat extermination costs anywhere between $150 and $2,000.

Check out the rest of our article to find out how much it costs to remove bats from an attic this year.

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The Importance of Removing Bats from Your Attic

While bats have an essential role in our ecosystem, they don’t belong inside our homes, including in the attic. These little creatures might seem harmless, but many things could go wrong if you have bats in any space in your house.

One of the biggest problems you can face if bats live in your attic is jeopardizing your health.  Bat droppings and urine can build up, causing a foul smell, rot in your attic and insulation, and respiratory infections. It’s also not uncommon for bats living in homes to cause rabies.

Numerous things could go wrong if you touch a bat or get bitten by it. Considering all these possible problems, you’ll realize it’s important to remove bats from your attic efficiently and promptly once you discover the issue.

Bat
Image Credit: Pixabay

How Much Does It Cost to Remove Bats from an Attic?

On average, bat extermination costs anywhere between $150 and $2,000. However, the actual price can be a lot higher, and it varies depending on a few different factors, including:

Factors:
  • The size of the colony
  • Location and accessibility
  • Method used

The Size of the Colony

One of the significant factors determining the price of bat removal from your attic is the colony’s size. As you probably understand, the larger the colony, the higher the extermination price.

Colony size Extermination price
Single bats/small colonies $150–$1,500
Medium colonies $1,500–$5,000
Large colonies $5,000+

Location and Accessibility

When the bats are in an easily accessible location, the price for their extermination will be significantly lower than if the bats are in a hard-to-reach spot. Also, if they’re located centrally in one area, the extermination costs will be lower than if the bats are scattered over multiple locations.

Location Extermination price
Attic  

 

 

$400–$600

Walls
Chimney
Basement
Porch  

$50–$180

Trees

The harder the bats are to reach means that the exterminators might need to use specialized equipment, resulting in a higher final price.

Bat
Image Credit: Pixabay

Method Used

Bats are important for our ecosystem, which is why most professional exterminators offer services of exclusion and prevention for your bat issue. Because of that, they use various techniques to get the bats out, and the price will vary depending on the method they use.

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Additional Costs to Anticipate

While you have the optimal expected costs above, you should be aware that there are additional costs you should be ready for.

Bat Inspection

Before the extermination even begins, the exterminators will need to perform a bat inspection in your attic and other areas of your home. Typically, the inspection can range anywhere from $75 to $400.

Some companies may offer a free inspection, although those situations are quite rare. Most exterminators charge this service upfront and later add it to your final cost.


Other Present Pests

If you have bats living in your attic, you likely have other pests living there as well. If there are other infestations, the extermination price will be higher as there are other pests that also need removal from your home.

Here’s a simple breakdown of some of the costs you can expect:
  • Insect Control Service: $100–$350
  • Rodent Removal: $150–$550
  • Termite Control: $225–$1,000
  • Flea Extermination: $75–$500

Clean-up Costs

When there are bats in a certain area of your home, including the attic, there will likely be guano (bat droppings). These droppings represent a true risk to your health, which is why they need cleaning.

As this is not something you should do yourself, you’re looking at additional costs for the clean-up. Depending on the size of the infestation and the amount of guano, the clean-up can cost from $600–$6,500.

Home Inspector
Image Credit: Olivier Le Queinec, Shutterstock

Damage Repair

You’re probably aware that bats living inside your attic are capable of dealing a lot of damage to the area, which may result in costly repairs. Depending on the state of your attic, you can expect to pay for an attic restoration anywhere between $2,500–$6,000 or more.

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How to Recognize Signs of a Bat Infestation?

Before contacting an exterminator to help eliminate bats from your attic, you need to confirm that the bats are there.

There are a couple of different factors that could indicate you’re dealing with a bat infestation:
  • Loud noises coming from the attic
  • Presence of guano
  • Bad smell coming from the attic
  • Openings on the foundation or eaves

You can start your sort of inspection by checking the attic for guano. While doing this, wear protective gloves, as guano can jeopardize your health. Guano is black and shiny, so you shouldn’t have any issues recognizing these droppings in your attic if there are bats.

If there’s also constant noise coming from the attic, and you notice openings near the foundation or the roof where bats can access your home, it would be helpful to reach an exterminator.

Remember that you need to act promptly in these situations, as a bat infestation could lead to serious problems in the future. They could cause more damage to your home, making you pay a lot of money for repair costs, while they can also transmit various diseases which can jeopardize your health.

Does Homeowner Insurance Cover Bat Removal from Your Attic?

Homeowners insurance is there to protect the homeowner and cover repair or replacement costs in case of damage. However, while this applies to natural disasters and unexpected events, it doesn’t apply to bat removal from your attic or any other area of your home.

In most cases, your homeowners’ insurance won’t cover costs for bat removal because this type of accident is somewhat your fault as you didn’t practice good maintenance of the house. Because of that, the insurers could easily deny your application, leaving all the extermination costs on you.

If you have a bat infestation, it’s best to pay for the extermination and practice prevention so that such accidents don’t happen again. That will save you a lot of time, and money, while you’ll be less stressed about the whole situation.

Homeowners insurance text written on notebook
Image Credit: Jack_the_sparow, Shutterstock

What to Do to Prevent Bats from Accessing Your Attic?

After you’ve had the removal, you’ll need to practice prevention so that the bats don’t reappear in your attic. Typically, bats like to nest in dark areas where they can easily find food, and your attic makes the perfect environment for them to thrive and multiply.

As they can enter your home through multiple different openings, it’s crucial to seal them and prevent free access to your home. Because of that, you need to know what to do to keep your mind at ease and stop worrying about a possible infestation.

Here are a few different tips that will help you keep your home bat-free:
  • Get a full home inspection once a year
  • Seal any possible entry holes where the bats can access your home
  • Cover vents in your home
  • Cap your chimney
  • Ensure there are no cracks and gaps in your windows and doors
  • Change your outdoor lighting to yellow bulbs or bug-repelling bulbs

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Conclusion

Dealing with bats in your attic can be stressful and exhausting, but it’s crucial to remove them promptly. The costs can vary, and you should be aware that besides the removal cost, there are a lot of additional costs to consider. Unfortunately, even if you have homeowners’ insurance, they typically don’t cover these costs, so the entire price for the removal will be on you.


Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

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