‘Just a nightmare:’ Spiritwood woman’s home plagued with bats

WARNING — This story contains images of dead bats.

While most people prepare their homes for Halloween with decorations of ghosts, ghouls and bats, one Spiritwood woman is hoping to get rid of the bats infesting her home.

For Rachelle Swan, it started in the summer of 2022 when she found a live bat in her living room. When another live bat turned up on her porch, Swan said she tried reaching out to exterminators.

The exterminators explained to Swan that bats are a protected species, meaning they couldn’t get rid of them, she told Gormley on Tuesday.

“They literally said to us, ‘Good luck,’ ” Swan said.

A Spiritwood woman’s home has been infested with bats since last year. (Rachelle Swan/Submitted)

There are six species of bats in the province of Saskatchewan, and two of them – the little brown bat and the northern myotis – are endangered due to a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome.

Swan said she reached out to conservation officers who put her in touch with a roofing company specializing in bat relocation.

She said she invested thousands of dollars for the organization to fix the faulty roof of her home last fall. Workers spent two days on her tin roof installing bat cones with a one-way entrance, and 60 cans of silicone were also used to seal any gaps that bats could use to get inside the roof.

Swan said she was told that bats have extreme location loyalty, and even a hole the size of a little finger is a doorway large enough for bats to enter the roof.

Even after all the money she invested, the bats could still be heard in Swan’s home.

A bat managed to find its way into Rachelle Swan’s aquarium. (Rachelle Swan/Submitted)

“Literally the only way to deal with them now is to remove our entire roof,” she said, adding that such a drastic measure could cost her up to $100,000.

Swan said she could hear the bats through the entire winter, and their squeaks were so loud she could hear them over her television.

“Obviously there’s still a fault somewhere in the roof,” she said,

“Even though that roof is siliconed to high Heaven they’re still finding somewhere to get in because they want to be in our roof really badly.”

When spring of 2023 rolled around, Swan said she found more bats in her house, in strange places like an aquarium in her kitchen.

After reaching out once again to conservation officers and public health services, Swan was told she was considered a high risk for rabies.

Due to a lack of rabies vaccines in Spiritwood, Swan said she, her spouse and two kids went to Prince Albert where she received seven needles on the first visit.

Over the next two weeks, she said her family received a total of 47 rabies injections.

Just a few of the 47 rabies injections Rachelle Swan’s family received over a two-week period. (Rachelle Swan/Submitted)

“It was just a nightmare,” she said.

“One of the conservation officers had to come with us … because he got bit by one of the bats that was in our house.”

Because her family was considered high risk, Swan said her shots were covered, but she told Gormley she still needs to go for regular booster injections.

Swan said she’s made an effort to reach out to the provincial government for help, but hasn’t received much of a response.

Pest-control expert weighs in

Shawn Sherwood, manager with Poulin’s Pest Control, said pest control companies can only work with bats in May and September, and that work requires a permit from a conservation officer.

He explained that managing the problem can be straightforward if a little detective work is done.

Sherwood suggested going outside around dusk to figure out which entrance the bats were using to come and go. He said that needs to be done for a few nights in a row, because the bats don’t feed every night and could be using more than one entrance.

Once all the entrances are found, Sherwood said a one-way door needs to be made that’s reasonably flexible at the top and tight at the end so the bats can’t sneak their noses through.

“Then it’s a case of allowing them to go out and feed and not be able to get back into their homes,” he said.

After about a week, Sherwood said the one-way doors can be taken down and openings can be sealed.

“It can be complicated,” he said. “It takes a little bit of sleuthing work, but it’s not impossible.”

The full interviews with Swan and Sherwood can be found below.