Bat infestation leaves Spiritwood, Sask. family feeling defeated

Having pests invade your home is nothing new, but one family in Spiritwood, Sask. has been contending with a unique pest — bats.

Rachelle and Kelly Swan have lived in their home with their three kids for two years and had their first encounter with the flying mammal back in August 2022.

A bat made its way into their living room. Rachelle said they initially thought it must have gotten in from a door being left open.

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She said they later found the bat dead, but found another live bat out by their deck.

“At that point we were like, ‘Okay, something is going on here,'” Rachelle said.

They reached out to exterminators who couldn’t do anything other than notify them that bats are a protected species.

The little brown bat, also known as the little brown myotis, is listed federally as an endangered species.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Saskatchewan Chapter said the bat species was once the most common in the country, but has dwindled at a rapid rate due to a spreading disease called white-nose syndrome.

Rachelle said they put calls out to conservation officers, as well as Sask Public Health, due to them being worried about bats having rabies, but no real decision was made regarding the bats.

The home has vaulted ceilings with a tin roof and no attic.

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Rachelle said a roofing company came out and they spent thousands of dollars on bat cones to try and prevent these bats from re-entering the house through the roof with the promise that the bats would be gone by spring.

“We heard them all winter.”

But as the snow thawed, Rachelle said they just kept finding them.

“This spring we were in our kitchen and our fish tank was looking oddly murky and so we opened it up to clean it and there was a bat in it, dead in the water.”

They had a mouse trap set in the small access to the roof, and Rachelle said they found six bats caught in the trap.

She said Sask Public Health told them to get their rabies shots due to bats potentially biting or scratching them when they sleep.

“They said ‘Go get your kids at school, get to Prince Albert right now, you guys need to start your rabies series.'”

“Over the course of the next two weeks we had a total of 47 needles for our whole family,” Rachelle added.

They reached out to several parts of the Sask. Party government, even directly to Premier Scott Moe, but she noted that the only response was from the Ministry of Environment, who she says didn’t really have a solution.

“Bats and their place of habitation are protected from interference, harassment and killing. Two of the eight bat species found in Saskatchewan are also listed as endangered. It is illegal to kill, disturb or exclude bats without a permit from the Ministry of Environment.,” read a statement from the Ministry of Environment to Global News.

The ministry said that bats can only be removed in May or September to reduce risk to the young ones.

“Property owners or contractors working on their behalf must be aware of and follow the proper procedures and requirements for capture, handling, exclusion and removal of bats from any buildings/other structures. These are set out in Saskatchewan’s Bat Exclusion Policy.”

The ministry noted that fully removing bats from a structure can be a multi-year process. There is currently no provincial program to assist property owners with bat removal costs.

Rachelle said they’ve been looking to downsize due to the cost of living and find another home, but she said they can’t.

“We can’t sell a house that has bats in it.”

She added that they were quoted $60,000 to remove the tin roof, so that was out of the question.

“We’re at a loss, we don’t know what to do.”

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family to help pay for a roof replacement with a goal of $60,000.

Melanie Elliott is a bat specialist with Wildlife Rescue Society of Saskatchewan and said this is the time of year where bats are looking for a space to hibernate.

“Some of our bats migrate from the boreal forest and they go south, and we think they probably look for caves in Montana or North Dakota, but some bats decide that attics are the better place,” Elliott said.

She said part of the society’s purpose is to rescue bats, noting that bats need to be rescued from homes during the winter because they wouldn’t be able to survive outside without insects to eat.

“They have a very long lifespan, up to 40 years.”

She said any space you can get your pinky finger into, a bat can get into.

Elliott said anyone running into issues with bats can contact the society’s wildlife hotline at 306-242-7177.