I tried finding a source in the Law for my state and can't find anything. It mentions how you're okay to remove them from your own house (obviously in a non hurtful way) but doesn't say anything about a built/installable Bat House.

I'm asking because I do want to install a Bat House in my yard. Got a pretty big empty yard and it's surrounded by trees on almost all sides, got a pond and a heavily wooded area with a creek that runs through it. Recently started seeing bats when I come home late at night. So I know they're living somewhere nearby, I want to give them a nice shelter/home.

I'm just curious about the laws. Like if neighbors hate that I'm making a sanctuary for them. If I ever decide to move and the buyers hate the Bat house, Guano, etc

It’s on a dead tree about 15ft up and facing south! The side it’s facing is open with no tree shading, it’s just on the edge of woods here.

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https://preview.redd.it/jqc3sez4natc1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6c9f99b212e6b3775dfab498239ae94da80020a

ik it's not completely accurate but it was my first time drawing a bat, yes it is mine i just didn't bother to watermark it :,)

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https://preview.redd.it/fwb20dz1y9tc1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5ccbe7e9d124942d1ccfacbaa8cf836d72c0069

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KristjanaArts?section_id=43521082&order=date_desc&utm_source=boe&utm_medium=android&utm_campaign=zcObSUPDQbql4m1pMcn1dg&utm_content=Prints

Hello, I am trying to figure out how ot deal with some guano in my attic and instead of getting more potentially bias feed back from pest control companies I figured I would go to the the bat people themselves.

For years I thought it was just flying squirrel poop so I left it. Until a few months ago there was 1-4 bats living up there. I have only seen 1 go in and out but I have seen about 4 flying around the house at dusk. The amount of poop up there is not overwhelming like you see on youtube where its like a foot deep. Mostly its just poop scattered about but there are some small to medium sized piles. There are just little 6 inch X6 inch piles here and there. The worst is probably near the back corner on the structural boar boards there are 3inch wide piles that are maybe 3 inched deep and go along the board for about 2-3 feet. And again I am not sure if most the poop is flying squirrel or if its bat.

I was going to pay a company to go up there and clean up. The bat or bats have been excluded so their plan was to seal off the attic entry to my house with plastic in hopes to prevent any particle from entering our living space, Vacumm the poop and then run a fogger to kill bacteria and any bat bugs. I consulted a few other bat removal companies in random cities around the US and everyone of them told me to not do that because of the risk of Histoplasmosis. They said to get a company who can put a negative vacumm pressure on the attic while cleaning so if anything is stirred up it will not make it into the living area of the house. This had me concerned because I have a 6 month old. Unfortunately, there are no companies around here that are able to do the reverse pressure thing they spoke of.

After a few a cautions and warnings from several pest/bat removal companiesI decided to research the Histoplasmosis. It sounds like most cases occur when the fungus is disturbed like when bird/bat droppings are cleaned up or excavation is done. So one option I thought of might be just to leave it alone until its time to sell the house and my kids are out of there. I will admit it seems like it is pretty serious in some cases and after reading up on it I am pretty concerned for my kids.

So I have several options:

-leave it: my attic has no duct work for hvac up there and the only places where seepage of air might come in is through the attic door in the ceiling or through cracks in the ventilation of the two batch room exhaust fans. In other words exposure to the attic air is very minimal.

-Get the original company to do it. ($2K) They were going to leave the insulation but just vacume up what they could and then sanitize with a fogger.

-Pay some insane amount of money to get some other company that has a negative pressure vacum(15K+)

TLDR: Trying to decide which of the 3 options on getting rid of guano but also not harm my family: 1. leave the bat guano in the attic or 2. get it vacummed and sanitized by a regular pest control company or 3. get it cleaned out by some gucci company that has a reverse pressure vacumm but will break my bank?

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Edit: added pics

Here is the poop in one of the corners:

https://i.imgur.com/pB5lB7P.png

You can see where it accumulated up against the wall to the right and my attic access to the bottom left which is in our master bedroom closet. As far as piles of guano go in the attic this is probably the spot where it has accumulated most. There is some other poop in other areas of the attic but it is flying squirrel.

Here is our master bedroom closet right below it where we store clean sheets/towels and our clothes:

https://i.imgur.com/8bfaJE7.jpeg

https://imgur.com/XTXukyL

here is an example of what some of the other random pile of poop like like in the attic but I am not too worried about these because they are most likely flying squirrel as these piles are away from the wall.

https://i.imgur.com/xukSQ1y.png

https://i.imgur.com/wH41Jjq.png

Hi, we had a box on our porch and today found a small bat under it. It is alive but seems weak? I’ve already looked it up and there apparently are no wildlife rescuers in our county that take bats.

Any basic things we can do to help it, eg water, food? Definitely won’t be touching it.

If it matters, we’re in SE Iowa and the bat was about the length of my palm.

Thanks!

I've looked at a number of bat house plans and they often recommend using a circular saw to cut shallow grooves into boards to give the bats easy handholds. I'm wondering if rough sawn lumber would be rough enough to do the job. Because I've done the manual grooving with a circular saw before and it was a pain in the butt. But now I have a sawmill and basically infinite rough-sawn lumber.

I don't have any pictures of my own handy but this is what I'm talking about: https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/a7484q/how_to_achieve_smooth_finish_on_rough_cut_timber/

Would using that in a bat house negate the need for cutting grooves?

We have mulberry tree outside in the terrace and we have spotted a bat in it several times at first i didn't mind i know it's here for the fruit but everyone has told me some stuff and I'm scared now