TTT - Wanted to add a sidebar, I know this topic of bats overwintering in structures as they've been documented to do has come
up from time to time and Ron S. and others have shared good info on either when they stop excluding or when they leave one ways
on till spring weather and bat activity resumes.
Soo.... While most folks that have done this any length of time might already be set in their ways, I would suggest as someone just a few
years into this, that this issue of late fall exclusion is worth thinking through if you are trying to complete jobs and weather is getting below
bat activity being normal.
Personally I have a massive diversity of bats that don't exist in most of the midwest and northeast, so we have a multitude of factors we think
of depending on species and time of year, hibernation, maternity season, etc....
I generally only run into big brown bats in the mountains and many on log homes and traditional cabins. I've seen them still in fairly open cracks in
logs after snow has hit the ground, the question however would be are they gone before you exclude, or did they go further into the structure?
This year my winter was slow to show, but then jumped up and we are now down in the 20's overnight on a regular basis, however I am still seeing
big browns in homes I was asked to inspect and a few jobs I was inspecting one way valves installed during the start of this cold spell and there were
still bats there. Now before you go to the easiest logic that they got around my valves, these were long tube installations that were totally solid around the seal, thus only one way in or out of these large log cracks. Some of these bats were still in there more than 10 days following install which is what prompted this post to resurrect the idea of being very careful this time of year. While a single bat might not worry anyone very much, for me the idea of sealing any bat inside the structure when I could avoid it by time of year adjustment or leaving one ways, means I need to change my ways.
I feel lucky that I had Ron S., Eric A. and others to share early on a few years back and I've been cautious about late fall work and knowing when to call it and hold off till spring.
I hope folks that are new to this, embrace the idea that this is an important issue related to bat exclusion timetables and worth putting some time into assessing.
In situations where a wall void, or other hidden cavity might not allow you to see they are gone for sure, we of course are forced to assume, so I would encourage folks to be careful assuming if they are at the junction of fall and winter in their region and they are new to bat work.
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Hope this sounds logical and not paranoia, when I look into a hole and the bat or bats are still there and temps are holding at 25 and below, exclusion isn't going to go as planned unless you leave your tubes or one ways till spring...
Anyway, maybe rambling, but hope it hits a few new folks where I wanted it to....
Justin