Bat Poop, Possibly the World’s Best Fertilizer

As a bat removal company we answer a lot of questions about bat guano, better known as bat poop. We also have a lot of pictures on file of bat poop we have removed from homes and businesses across the country. Gross, we know.

Although bat poop is not good for us to be exposed to directly, there is a great following of people that believe bat poop is the best fertilizer ever. And I have say, I don’t think they’re all wrong about that.

Identifying Bat Poop

The number one thing we often hear from people is that they thought they just had mice. Bat poop is often mistaken for mouse droppings. Both have a similar appearance and look like small, dark brown pellets.

There are four main ways to distinguish bat poop from mouse droppings:

• Shiny – Bat poop, unlike mouse poop, is filled with shiny insect body parts from their diet. You may catch it reflecting light out of the corner of your eye.
• Texture – It is dry and will crumble easily.
• Size – It varies in size depending on the bat species but is typically larger than mouse droppings.
• Location – You may find it sticking to the outside of your house, generally higher up on the wall or window. In places you wouldn’t find a mouse unless it somehow managed to walk sideways across an exterior wall.

I am by no means encouraging you to touch or handle bat poop or mouse poop. Both are dangerous to humans and can potentially be carrying deadly diseases. These are just a few ways our trained technicians can be certain you have bat poop instead of mouse poop.

The Benefits of Bat Poop

There are three main components that make bat guano an excellent fertilizer:

1 – Nutrients

Bat guano typically contains three major nutrients: 10% nitrogen, 3% phosphorus and 1% potassium. It also has many smaller micronutrients plants need for healthy growth. So what do the big three nutrients do?

• Nitrogen promotes green, rapid growth. This is a helpful property as a fertilizer especially for lawns.
• Phosphorus supports flowering and promotes root growth. This is great for your flower beds or for your trees.
• Potassium helps plants grow strong stems. Again, helpful for flower beds or trees.

2 – Soil Improvement

Bat guano fertilizer helps hold together loose soils and makes dense soils lighter. This property alone can benefit the texture of the soil but in addition, bat poop is not easily washed away from the soil. Which means it benefits the plants and soil much longer than some inorganic fertilizers which are more easily removed from the soil.

3 – Microbes

Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle.They are the oldest form of life on earth. Microbes in bat poop have been found to have bio remediation capabilities. This means bat guano can aid in cleansing toxic soils.

The microbes can also increase water-holding capacity and air space by loosening the soil. Bat guano microbes are also efficient decomposers and help control the incidence of soil diseases and dangerous nematodes. Bat guano can also be added to a compost pile to speed up the decomposition process.

Don’t Clean Bat Poop Out of Your Attic Yet

Having bat poop in your attic is gross. We understand people’s desire to have it gone as soon as possible. Like mouse poop that can carry hantavirus, bat poop can carry histoplasma capsulatum which is the fungus that can cause you to become sick with the histoplasmosis virus.

While we realize serious gardeners or farmers will pay a hefty price for bat guano fertilizer, there are safety precautions that need to be taken when cleaning up after a bat infestation. An easy way to think about this is like black mold. Black mold is a fungus that will grow in your home and make you very sick. It doesn’t grow in every home, it needs the right conditions, but once it does we all recognize that it is very dangerous. You wouldn’t cleanup black mold yourself, so don’t try to cleanup bat poop yourself either. Even if you intend to go put it in your garden.

Bats are not a bad thing but if you have them in your home, use an expert to get them out or clean up after them. For your family’s safety.

Your local bat removal expert,

Michael Koski