Salt Lake City's Best Bat Removal

What is the summer maternity season?

A bat's mating habits are actually quite a fascinating matter, one that can help us better understand these tiny winged creatures. Quite often, bats will find their way into our human homes, and sometimes, they do this during the summer maternity season. In order to understand why this happens and what we can do about it, we first need to understand what the summer maternity season is all about.

So let's talk a bit about the mating habits of bats, and how they might impact our homes.

When do bats reproduce?

Interestingly enough, female bats have the ability to actually store semen in their reproductive tract and make themselves pregnant later. They do this out of a very simple consideration - during the warm months of summer, food (primarily insects, for most bats) is more readily available. This means that their pups can develop more easily and healthily, and pregnancy is made that much easier for the females.

Of course, the term "summer maternity season" shouldn't be taken literally. Depending on the specific part of the country you live in, the summer maternity season can start as early as April, and end in late August, or even early September. This depends quite heavily on the climate in that specific area. Of course, in more tropical climates, where the weather is good all year round, females may choose to reproduce more often, since food isn't such a problem. But for the purpose of this article, we'll focus on the summer maternity season in the United States, averaging a good few months between April/May to late August.

Summer Maternity Season

After the reproductive stage is over, pregnant females will band together in special maternity colonies, that will allow them to birth and nurture their young to independence. During this time, maternity colonies are protected by law in the United States, which may often cause a problem for homeowners.

You see, bats are considered a beneficial creature for the environment because a large chunk of their diet consists of undesirable insects. They help keep the population of said insects in check, and so it's necessary for bats to be able to reproduce safely. This means that if you, as a homeowner, discover a maternity colony on your property, you have no choice but to let it be. If disturbed, bat females (who are very sensitive during this time) will abandon their young, usually causing them to die.

So even if you've got 40 female bats roosting in your attic during the summer maternity season, you are not allowed to do anything to disband or shoo them away. Rather, you need to give it time and wait for the colony to relocate on its own.

It's not just a legal thing.

First of all, consider the horror that a female bat must feel being separated from its pup. Most bat exclusion methods will only affect the mothers since they are the only ones strong enough in a maternity colony to leave and hunt. By excluding the mother bat, it will become desperate and attempt to get back to her pup by any means necessary. Think about it for a second. This could easily do more harm than good, and wreak havoc inside your home.

Second of all, exclusion of the adults would have dire consequences for the pups, leaving them to starve and die, rotting away inside your home. This will cause quite a stench and may even attract other predators, in search of prey. Not to mention that it can easily get you in trouble with the law.

So if you're hosting a bat colony complete with babies, your best bet is to just wait for them to relocate on their own.