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Dear Silvan, what's in my chimney?

© Van Waffle

Dear Silvan,

Bought a house one year ago. There is a fireplace with a wood-burning stove set into it. We have not used it and plan to take the stove out and give it away. Now the question. There seems to be bats in the chimney and they squeak all day. I thought it was baby birds at first, but they should be gone by now if that guess had been right. So, I guess it's two questions. How can I know what's up there? If its bats (or whatever), how can I get rid of them?

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Dear B.B.

Despite my family's long history of cottage life, we have never been invaded by bats so I don't have much personal experience with them. But your visitors might be neither birds nor bats.

Bat vocalizations are so high they are practically inaudible to the human ear. The quiet squeaks I've heard from bats flying over our bay at night are more like insect sounds than baby birds, which are usually more shrill and noisy. Another possibility is raccoons, which are also prone to building dens and raising their kittens in chimneys, then continuing to bring them back to the nest during the day. Being less strictly nocturnal than bats, I would also expect them to make more noise during the day. If you live in a forested area, I think flying squirrels might be another possible culprit.

When I was young my family had a raccoon take up residence in our chimney and we mistook their sounds at first for baby birds. I don't remember how my father got them out finally, but he did it without harming them and prevented them from returning by fitting the chimney with a wire cage, designed for this purpose, from a hardware store. Try covering the chimney with a heavy brick or stone at night when the bats or raccoons are out so they can't get back in. Anything too light or not tightly secured, and raccoons will just lift it off. You can install a proper cover later in daylight. Of course this trick would be fatal to any sleeping birds, so try to make sure that's not what you're harbouring. But bird families are usually pretty busy and obvious in their activities around the house by this time of the summer. Our cottage chimney pipes have covers that prevent entry by both rain and wildlife.

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