What to do about bats in the chimney

When you notice that you have bats in the chimney, it is important to inspect the entire house to make sure that the chimney is the only location they inhabit. If they are not in the attic or any other part of your home, the bat problem is less complicated to solve because they are located in just one small part of your home. Before speaking of concrete tips on how to remove bats from the chimney, it is important to mention two mandatory points. First of all, check the damper and make sure that it is not open; otherwise, bats will get into other parts of your home when they start flying around the chimney. Another very important point is to avoid starting a fire! Some might think that a fire will naturally remove bats from their chimney. However, a fire will not burn unless you open the damper – and in this case bats will escape to other parts of the house. More importantly, a fire will burn and kill a certain number of bats, and this is against the law and can have serious legal consequences for you.

Now that we have discussed these points, let's talk about how to remove bats from the chimney.

The first thing you have to do to remove the bats from the chimney is to locate the entry point. This is the point they used to get inside the chimney and they use on a daily basis to get outside to find food and water and to get back in to sleep. When you locate the entry point, it is necessary to install a one-way exclusion funnel that will enable bats to get out of the chimney but disable them from getting back in. The point in using such a device is that not all bats go outside all at once, so it is not possible to force them all out at once and then shut the chimney and consider all problems solved. Bats go out in groups or individually over a certain period of time, so it is important to have one effective tool that will get them all out and keep them all out.

Once all of them are out, then it will be a good moment to close the chimney with a safety net that will keep the bats out for good. Keep in mind that bats are very small creatures and can fit into very small holes, so make sure to get a very thick net.

Go back to the How to Get Rid of Bats page or email us if you have any other questions about What to do about bats in the chimney