Educational Facilities Management: 3 Steps To Handle A Bat Control Problem At Your School

Schools are meant to be a safe place where children can learn and play. However, educational buildings often have multiple factors in place that tend to draw pests indoors. Unfortunately, a bat problem places the health and safety of every person on the property at risk since these mammals are known carriers of diseases such as rabies. At the first sign of a bat problem, take these steps to get the issue under control.

1. Seek Professional Assistance

Reports of bats may come from curious students who witness them flying around the building, or members of your janitorial team may notice evidence as they clean the building. Once you hear a bat report, arrange for professional control services to determine the seriousness and the full extent of the problem. Since bat guano can carry diseases that are transmissible to humans, the cleanup and control of this type of infestation should be left to professional technicians who know the safety precautions to take rather than your regular janitorial staff.

2. Issue a Warning to the Staff

Just the thought of bats in the building may generate fear among adults and children alike. While bats typically pose no threat to humans when they are left alone, you cannot risk a curious student making contact with one that may be on the ground. For this reason, you will need to send a formal notice out to the staff that lets them know to watch out for bats on the property while the issue is being handled. Be sure to include in the notice the steps that a teacher or other staff member should take if they believe that a student or adult has come in contact with a bat.

3. Practice Exclusion 

Bat removal works best through the practice of exclusion. Once the bats are removed from a building, you will need to take the proper steps to repair any entry points where they came inside in the beginning. Typically, this involves repairing areas such as damaged roofs and windows, which is a good practice for the prevention of other types of pests.

Bats in a schoolhouse are never good things to discover. However, you can restore the safety of your educational facility by taking any reports of bats seriously from the beginning. By addressing a bat control issue as soon as possible, you can stop the population of bats from increasing and lessen the severity of the damage caused by the infestation.

Share