How To Keep Bats Away From Your Swimming Pool (7 Easy Tips)

by Derrick | Last Updated: December 22, 2021

Bats are not explicitly attracted to your pool, but sometimes, they can swoop down on your swimming pool to take a quick drink, dip in the water just like humans do, or hang around the area looking for bugs and insects to eat. The good news is that it isn’t hard to keep bats away from your swimming pool.

Here are 7 of the best tips to keep bats away from your swimming pool:

Illuminate the swimming pool area with a bright light.

Use netting to cover your swimming pool.
Install ultrasonic sound devices.
Remove their food sources, including bats.

Spray natural repellents around the pool.
Eliminate roosting sites permanently.
Hire a professional exterminator.

For the rest of the article, I will explain the effectiveness of these tips in detail. Read on to learn everything you need to know about getting rid of bats from your swimming pool effectively and keep them away.

1. Illuminate the Swimming Pool Area With a Bright Light

Bats dislike bright lights, and illuminating your pool area is an effective way to eliminate them. It’s common knowledge that bats are most active at night, and when you shine an intense floodlight over your swimming pool, it will illuminate their flight path and deter them from your swimming pool.

After a while, the bats will avoid going near your pool. So I recommend increasing the illumination of the light from stage to stage until it is too bright for the bat to fly in.

2. Use Netting To Cover Your Swimming Pool

If you are not overly concerned with more discreet methods of getting rid of bats around your pool, you can use netting. Nettings are flexible and will take on the shape of your pool.

You can set up the net over the pool and use netting clips to pull it up. Attach the netting to anchors. After that, you can use hooks to hold it in place for when you want to put the net up or take it down quickly.

Bats are creatures of habit, and once they have a flight path, it is often difficult for them to change that path. However, once bats discover this obstruction on their flight paths a couple of times, they will start to fly elsewhere instead.

3. Install Ultrasonic Sound Devices

There are many loud noises and sounds that can scare bats away. However, these sounds are often irritating to humans, and this is when ultrasonic sound devices come in.

Using an excellent quality ultrasonic sound device is a safe and easy way of getting rid of bats. A bonus is that many ultrasonic bat repellents can also get rid of other pests and insects, such as rodents and spiders.

I recommend the Briidea Ultrasonic Bat Repellent from Amazon.com. With its wide coverage area, it’s an excellent option for repelling bats and other pests. Plus, it offers an eco-friendly design and ease of installation. If you continuously use it for 16 to 20 days, you’ll get the results you want.

Remember that bats rely on a sense of hearing to catch prey, and the ultrasonic device emits sounds in the bats’ frequency hearing threshold, which humans cannot hear. The sounds from these devices will scare the bats away. A study from the University of Bristol evaluated ultrasonic sounds to deter bats and found them effective.

4. Remove Their Food Sources, Including Bugs

Bats often roost where they can have easy access to food and water. You can get rid of bats by getting rid of their food sources, primarily insects, nectar, fruit, leaves, bark, pollen, beetles, spiders, etc.

Bugs are a food source for bats, and bats may often hover around your pool area to get to them. Bats will not go near your pool when you get rid of their food source.

To eliminate bugs from your swimming pool, you can either use a bug zapper or turn off pool lights to get rid of bugs.

5. Spray Natural Repellents Around the Pool

Incorporating natural smells that are unpleasant to bats is an excellent way to get rid of them. Some of these smells include menthol or spearmint, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and peppermint essential oils.

You can mix generous amounts of the scents in a spray bottle and spray it around your poolside. It’s also possible to hang a packet of these oils on a pole around your swimming pool. Make sure it’s in the direction from which the bats always approach.

6. Eliminate Roosting Sites Permanently

The most effective method to get rid of bats from your swimming pool is to eliminate roosting sites around your home entirely.

Eliminating roosting sites means that bats can’t live around your area anymore. Therefore, your pool will be inconvenient for them.

There are several ways you can go about removing bat roosting sites:

Use visual deterrents like bright lights near the roosting site. As explained earlier, bats are not fans of bright lights, and after a while of shining light at their nests, they will leave. Repeat this process several times until they are not comfortable coming back again.
Use aerosol cat and dog repellent. Spray this non-toxic repellent at the nest during the daytime when the bats are not around. It is practical and effective in getting rid of bats for several months.
Use Mylar balloons or aluminum foil. Bats love still and quiet moments. The movement from Mylar balloons or the rustling sound from long strips of aluminum foil will throw bats off and effectively deter them. In addition, the reflective surface of aluminum produces flashes of lights that leave bats disoriented.

Use mothballs. Bats are susceptible to smell because they have a stronger sense of smell than us. Using mothballs is a quick and easy way to get rids of bats from their roosting site. You can wrap a few mothballs in a cloth bag and hang it where the bats are nesting. Mothballs will cause dizziness and vomiting in bats, thus chasing the bats away.

7. Hire a Professional Exterminator

Suppose the bat problem persists after trying out all the methods above. In that case, hiring the services of a professional exterminator is the final option to getting rid of bats from your swimming pool permanently.

Professional exterminators have the best types of equipment, knowledge, and experience to trap and deter bats completely from your swimming pool without causing unintentional damage.

What’s more, there are laws surrounding pest removal, and it is essential to hire a licensed pest control company that will adhere to the law.

Sources

University of Bristol: Evaluating Methods to Deter Bats