Are Bats Protected in Ontario? What the Law Says

Yes, bats are protected wildlife in Ontario. If you have bats in your attic and you are wondering whether you can simply handle the situation yourself, the short answer from a legal standpoint is no — and the protections are stronger than most homeowners realise. This post walks through the two statutes that apply, the species that receive the most protection, what homeowners are and are not permitted to do, and what humane exclusion looks like under Ontario law.

The short answer: yes, and here’s why it matters

Two pieces of provincial legislation set the rules. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1997 protects every bat species in Ontario from harm, capture, harassment, and unauthorised possession. On top of that, the Endangered Species Act, 2007 adds a second, stricter layer of protection for species at risk — including the little brown bat, which is the species most often found roosting inside Ontario homes. Together, these two acts make residential bat work a regulated activity. Penalties for individuals reach twenty-five thousand dollars per offence and can climb into six figures for corporations.

The practical takeaway is simple. Anything beyond letting a single bat fly out of an open window on its own requires a licensed approach. Humane exclusion, performed in a permitted seasonal window, is the only legal path forward.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act is the base layer of protection for wildlife in Ontario. It applies to all bat species in the province — little brown, big brown, northern long-eared, tri-colored, hoary, silver-haired, and eastern red. The act treats bats as specially protected wildlife, which means they receive higher protection than animals classified as game.

What the act actually prohibits is broad. It is illegal to harm, harass, capture, or possess a bat without authorisation under a licence or regulation. That includes trapping bats in containers, holding them captive, transporting them off the property, and relocating them somewhere else — even if your intent is to release them unharmed. Lethal control of bats is prohibited outright. Chemical control and fumigation are prohibited. The use of sealed traps is prohibited.

Penalties are real. Individuals face fines of up to twenty-five thousand dollars per offence and possible imprisonment of up to one year. Corporations face fines of up to one hundred thousand dollars per offence. Repeat offences and offences involving endangered species push those figures higher. Provincial wildlife officers do enforce these statutes — homeowners and contractors have been charged.

The reason the act is structured this way is straightforward: every bat species in Ontario provides direct ecological value through insect control, and several species have suffered severe population decline. Strong, blanket protection for all bats is far simpler to enforce than a species-by-species patchwork.

The Endangered Species Act and the little brown bat

The little brown bat — formally the little brown myotis — is the species most commonly found in Ontario homes. It is also a species in serious trouble. White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease introduced to North America in 2006, reached Ontario around 2010 and has reduced little brown bat populations by more than ninety percent across much of their range. In response, the species was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, 2007. Two other species commonly recorded in Ontario — the northern long-eared myotis and the tri-colored bat — share that endangered listing.

The Endangered Species Act adds two layers on top of the base protection in the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. First, it explicitly prohibits harming, harassing, capturing, or possessing individuals of a listed species. Second — and this is the part that catches many homeowners off guard — it protects the habitat that endangered species depend on for survival. Habitat, under the act, includes places where the species lives, breeds, raises young, hibernates, or otherwise carries out its life cycle.

In practical terms, that means a maternity colony of little brown bats inside your attic can be considered protected habitat. The structure where the colony roosts is, for the purposes of the act, part of the species’ habitat. You cannot simply destroy a maternity roost because it is convenient to do so. You can — and should — have a licensed specialist exclude the colony humanely outside of maternity season. The species remains protected, but you regain full control of your home through a method the law explicitly permits. The Government of Ontario maintains a species at risk page for the little brown myotis with the formal recovery context.

The takeaway for homeowners: the species in your attic likely matters legally, not just biologically. Our team identifies the species during inspection before any work begins.

What homeowners are NOT allowed to do

Plain-English summary of the legal prohibitions, drawn from both statutes:

• You cannot harm a bat. Lethal control of any kind is prohibited. That covers contact with implements, chemical control, fumigation, and any method that injures or destroys a bat.
• You cannot capture or contain a bat. Sealed traps, glue traps, and any device designed to hold a bat are prohibited.
• You cannot relocate a bat. Even if you capture one without harming it, transporting it off the property and releasing it elsewhere is illegal under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
• You cannot destroy a maternity colony. Active maternity roosts of endangered species are protected habitat under the Endangered Species Act.
• You cannot exclude bats during maternity season — roughly May through early August in Ontario. During this window, females are nursing flightless pups. One-way valves would let mothers leave but trap pups inside the structure to starve. Provincial law restricts exclusion in this window for exactly that reason.
• You cannot seal entry points while bats are inside. Permanent sealing without first verifying the structure is empty traps the colony alive — a clear violation of the act.

These rules apply to homeowners and contractors equally. Hiring a contractor who cuts corners does not transfer legal liability away from the homeowner; both parties can be charged.

What homeowners ARE allowed to do

The legal path is humane exclusion, performed by a licensed wildlife specialist in a permitted seasonal window. Here is what that actually looks like.

A licensed specialist inspects the home, identifies every active and potential entry point, and confirms the species present. Custom-fit one-way valves are installed over each active entry point. Bats can leave the structure through the valves on their own — usually over four to six weeks — but cannot get back in once they have left. Once the structure is verified empty, the valves are removed and every entry point is permanently sealed with stainless or copper mesh, exterior-rated polyurethane sealant, and custom vent guards.

This work happens in legally permitted windows: mid-August through October is the primary exclusion season, with a shorter window in early spring before maternity season begins. Winter exclusion is generally not done, because bats hibernate inside the structure and cannot leave through the valves at low temperatures.

Humane exclusion is the only legal method, and it is also the only one that actually works long-term. Repellents, ultrasonic devices, and sealed-up entry points without proper exclusion all either fail or cause additional violations. For the full process, see our bat removal and exclusion service page. For a deeper comparison of removal versus exclusion as concepts, see bat exclusion vs. bat removal — what’s the difference.

Why these laws exist

The protections in place are not arbitrary. North American bat populations have collapsed over the past two decades, and the conservation case for strong legal protection is overwhelming.

White-nose syndrome is the central reason. The disease — caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans — attacks hibernating bats, disrupting their hibernation cycles and causing them to burn through fat reserves before spring. Since reaching North America in 2006, white-nose syndrome has caused an estimated mortality of more than six million bats across Canada and the United States. In Ontario, little brown bat populations declined by more than ninety percent in some hibernation sites within a few years of the disease’s arrival. Northern long-eared and tri-colored bats have suffered comparable declines.

The ecological cost of those losses is enormous. A single bat eats well over a thousand insects in a single night. Across a healthy colony, the insect-control value runs to many billions of bugs per summer per region — a service that no agricultural or residential technology comes close to matching. Studies have estimated the annual agricultural value of North American bats at billions of dollars, all of it free.

Provincial wildlife protection is the conservation response to that crisis. Strong, broad protection for all bat species — and stricter protection for species already at risk — is intended to give populations a chance to stabilise and recover. The goal is not to make life difficult for homeowners. The goal is to ensure that homes can be made bat-free in a way that does not push already-fragile species closer to extinction. Humane exclusion accomplishes both objectives simultaneously, which is why it is the legally permitted path.

How our team handles compliance

Our team is fully licensed for humane bat exclusion in Ontario under both the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and the Endangered Species Act. Every member of the crew is trained on the seasonal restrictions, the species identification differences that affect timing, and the documentation we keep for each job.

What that means in practice for a homeowner working with us:

• We never schedule exclusion work during maternity season. If you call us in June, we inspect, prepare a plan, and book the actual valve installation for mid-August or later — full stop, no exceptions.
• We identify the species during inspection before any work begins, because protections differ slightly between species and the timing of the work can shift accordingly.
• We document every job — entry points found, materials used, valve installation date, sealing date — for compliance purposes and for our Lifetime Warranty. Photographs of every sealed location are retained.
• We back the work permanently.

If a bat re-enters through any point we sealed, we come back and do all the work necessary — at no extra cost. Forever.

The lifetime warranty is transferable to new owners if you sell the home. Full terms are available on our Terms of Service page. For more on our team and our approach, see the about page or the full process on our bat removal and exclusion service page.

When to call

If you have signs of bats in your home, call us for a free inspection. Quotes are free, written, and no-obligation. Timing matters — exclusion windows are narrow, and booking early in the year locks you into the post-maternity-season schedule before the August rush hits. If you are still confirming whether you actually have bats, our post on bats in your attic — signs, risks, and what to do tonight is the right starting point. Every home is different. Get a free, no-obligation quote after a brief inspection.