{"id":148219,"date":"2025-09-16T14:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148219\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:16:13","slug":"environment-ministry-offers-tips-on-dealing-with-bats-as-encounters-increase-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148219\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment ministry offers tips on dealing with bats, as encounters increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past few months, a number of bat encounters and bites have been reported to the province.<\/p>\n

The number of reports grew high enough for health officials and the Ministry of Environment to put out a warning.<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

With more bat-related incidents being reported, the Ministry of Environment shared some safety tips when dealing with the flying creatures.<\/p>\n

Erin Swerdfeger, a species at risk zoologist with the Ministry of Environment, said there are a few ways people can deal with bats on their property.<\/p>\n

If someone finds a single bat in their house, which is common during this time of year, Swerdfeger said it\u2019s an easy fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re just in a room and there\u2019s access to the outside through a window or a door, you can shut all the other doors and windows in the house,\u201d she said. \u201cLeave that one access point open, turn off the lights, turn off things like ceiling fans that can be harmful, and just let the bat leave on its own.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A bat in the bathroom sink of a Saskatoon condo building. (Taylor MacPherson\/650 CKOM)<\/p>\n

If a bat is in an area of the home where it\u2019s unable to fly out on its own, Swerdfeger suggests using a box to catch it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait till (the bat) landed, and then poke air holes in a box,\u201d she said. \u201cWe recommend wearing thick leather gloves and using this container. You can gently place it over the bat, and then slide a piece of cardboard gently underneath, sort of like the idea of trapping a spider under a glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swerdfeger said the best time to release a bat is at dusk.<\/p>\n

The other most common occurrence is a group of bats in a barn or a similar structure. Swerdfeger said May and September are the best months to evict a bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recommend working with a licensed pest control operator,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know what to look for in a building, they know where to go, and they can put up what\u2019s called an exclusion device, or a bat cone, which is essentially a one-way exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

That allows a bat to leave on its own\u2014which it does most nights\u2014but it won\u2019t allow them to re-enter the property, according to Swerdfeger.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all the bats have been confirmed to be out of that area, the pest control operator can go in and seal off those areas permanently,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes this can take a few tries, but that\u2019s the easiest and safest way to get that out of your house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bats are a protected species<\/a>, which means they can\u2019t just be killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wanted to disturb their place of habitation or kill them, then you would need a license from the Ministry of Environment,\u201d Swerdfeger said. \u201cWhere they live and the bats themselves are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is due to some bats being an endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe little brown myotis and the northern myotis are federally listed as endangered,\u201d Swerfeger said.<\/p>\n

The hoary bat, silver-haired bat and the eastern red bat have also been considered endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, according to Swerfeger.<\/p>\n

When it comes to handling bats, Swerdfeger said she wants people to remember one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to remember that the bat is probably scared and not where it wants to be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not looking to harm humans; we do want to keep both bats and humans safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past few months, a number of bat encounters and bites have been reported to the province.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-148219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}