Are juvenile bats old enough now to remove colonies?

We can start excluding on August 16th so I guess not. ( Apparently all the juvenile bats learn to fly for the first time on the 15th

so that should be fun to watch )

It depends on when birthing happened in your area and what species of bat you're dealing with. Some species will take 8 weeks to become self sufficient while others may take considerably longer. This is why a lot of states have exclusion date "blackouts" from April or May 1 until August or September 1.

Many operators take deposits and schedule the work for after the end of the maternity season in their area.

The maternity season concept is to allow for bats of multiple species in an area (as Eric related) to become not only volant (flying)
but to be independently feeding which is often not discussed.

There are variations too as Eric stated within species. Some develop faster than others, give birth sooner etc...

I have pups in my state that are a month old and flying and others that are just being born.

We encourage our homeowners to wait out the maternity season for a variety of reasons that relate to them and their home as well as the bats.

1) exclude too soon and block lactating females from pups and you have two potential issues

A) dead pups in the walls or attic decomposing
B) live pups or juveniles climbing out inside the home often when the folks never had a live bat prior to this exclusion attempt mid maternity season.
C) of course there is a third option if in a state with permits or regs in being afoul of the law though states with laws for bats and bat work are scant.

I've yet to have a client turn me down for waiting and I've had people that loathed bats and those that like or are at least neutral on the subject.

Taking the deposit as a business secures your income without you needing to rush the seasonality related to this issue.

Line em up for fall knowing what you are doing is the best thing with the best chance for a positive outcome without those happenings above.

My .02

I am a bat nut though so some might dismiss my words as protectionist but on bats I don't mind that one bit.

Justin

Ps I'd talk to other operators you know have experience in your area with your bats if looking to fine tune your season in absence of state rules or regs.

I'm in south-central Illinois, and have bats at various stages of development. A few local colonies have young taking some short flights, but not actively feeding on their own. However, I was in a church a week ago and there were hundreds of young bats (pups) crawling all over inside the attic and bell tower. They appeared to be about 3 weeks old. No way that evictions should be performed here yet, and you are way farther north than I am.

Just thought a MI person should chime in.....usually last week July is pretty safe....early Aug better.

Typically in our local service area we generally have self sustaining juvenile bats beginning in late July to early August. But there are some variables that determine this time frame as has been sited already. Different states that we service may have varying times and also altitude changes effect maturity times.

I know northern and north eastern parts of the country are later maturity by a few weeks no question.

We do inspections in the roost site and exterior watches when possible before doing work when roost site evaluations aren't possible to determine juvenile flight maturity. If not we wait until early August when in doubt.

I would think Michigan flight dates would be a couple of weeks behind our climatic conditions in SW Pa.

The maternal colonies I have been seeing the young are running the gambit from newborn to nearly flying. All big browns. Kind of a strange year most years they are flying pretty much the same time give or take 2 weeks. Have to be real careful when exclusion time comes in August.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!bingo

Everything was early in 2 states

What DaveK said