Bats: Rabid and Terrifying or Really Terrific Animals?

[veggiewriter]

http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/News/PressReleases/2004/102004Rabies.htm

One of my friends passed this on to me. She's terrified of bats (for some reason they keep getting into her apartments, too) and is convinced that rabid bats try to 'eat' people (she heard about the above 'attack' on the radio).

I'm sad for the girl in the above article, but am VERY discouraged that she didn't take precautions after being bitten by getting the rabies shots. Her catching rabies is such a blow for bats in general--people are already scared of them, they don't need more events like this to add to the hysteria!

How do we all feel about bats? Personally, I like 'em. I think they're cute.

[berrykat]

I love bats someday I want to go austin and see them fly out from under the bridge as they do every night at sunset. one of the largest mexican free tailed bat colonies in the US.

[SilverC]

I love bats! I think they are cute, too. I love it when I'm walking at night and a bat swoops by, it's very cool. Most people I know are terrified of them, but these are the same people who are afraid of mice. :rolleyes:

Bats are just really interesting little guys. I mostly just saw little brown bats growing up. I love flying foxes, they have the sweetest faces! And vampire bats will share blood with other bats so that they don't starve.

Plus, bats eat buggies!! If I ever have a house, I'm going to build some bat boxes to hang in my backyard.

[QTrishy]

I was bit by a bat two years ago. A bat got into my parents house, which I was living with at the time, and my dad and brothers were trying kill it because they couldn't get it out the window. I was still trying to help shoo it out the window [I had a broom - my brother did too]. Unfortunately when my brother hit the bat with the broom towards the window that I had just opened it came right towards me [I put my hands over my face - automatic response - I had a corneal transplant two weeks before and my eye was bandaged. ] and it bit my thumb and in the next minute or so while I just kind of stood there in shock, it flew out the window.

I lived literally 3 blocks away from St. Joe hospital, so parents took me there, and once they heard bat bite, they rushed me in and I got to deal with a long needle and a few more outpatient shots afterwards.

My family is now deathly afraid of bats and I'm still extremely fascinated. We went through the house and boarded/patched up any are we thought the bat could get through.

I'd definitely like to see more bats - but in a safer setting. Rabies shots are so not fun. :P


But automatic response to a bat bite for me was go to the hospital, I didn't even give it a second thought.

[I ramble a lot, don't I?]

[Kamila]

Another bat lover. I love walking at twilight when they come out for the evening. My brother and I used to tease them by tossing pebbles into the air to watch them catch them. Now that I'm older and think through these things I hope none of them broke any teeth.

[kirkjobsluder]

This web page might be helpful:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/bats_&_rabies/bats&.htm

Bats that are unable to fly, or are in areas where bats do not normally roost, are more likely to be rabid.

[borealis]

I love bats. ^_^ I love how some bats have their noses squished up between their eyes. They're so cute!

[peace]

I'm on a personal journalistic crusade for bats, lol. I've written favorably about them several times in my column, and in the new children's newsletter I've started, too.

[IamJen]

I think they're pretty cool too. At the college I attended some years ago, there were tons of bats who lived in the adjoining woodsy area. They'd come swooping right by your head at night and freak out all the freshmen, lol, but we never had mosquitos!

[thebelovedtree]

They're pretty high up on the long list of animals I hope to learn to rescue if I'm ever in a position to do it. There really isn't anyone around here who will take baby bats if they need care for some reason, which is sad because we have a huge population.

[renaissancesun]

I love bats someday I want to go austin and see them fly out from under the bridge as they do every night at sunset. one of the largest mexican free tailed bat colonies in the US.


Do go! It is such a cool thing to see.

Something else, even closer to Dallas, is the Bat World Sanctuary in Mineral Wells. The woman who runs it got started when she worked at a bank (I think ) and was on her lunch hour one day and found a little dying bat on the sidewalk. Whe wrapped it up in something and from then on proceeded to learn more about them and love them more every day. People constantly bring her bats to rehabilitate and house. You can get up really close to some and watch her feed them. They really are a marvel. Well worth the drive!

I have a bat story...

I was staying with my mom in Madison WI a couple of years ago. She lives in some apartments that have been plagued by bat problems over the years. There are a lot of elderly people in her building and many of them are VERY superstitous and afraid of bats. There were several instances of bats being in the elevator and old women coming out screaming and waving their arms and a couple times them paralyzed with fright and having to have help getting out of the elevator.

http://www.batworld.org/tours/tours.html


One night, about 2 am, I was asleep in Mom's spare room. I am a super light sleeper and I awoke just in time to see a dark flash of something over me, up by the ceiling. It went behind the curtain. I was a bit disoriented and I moved the curtain and this poor little lost bat started flying around and around and around... I didn't know what to do. it finally stopped and I got out fast. I woke my mom up and told her what happened. We were both standing in her hall in our underwear, topless (sleeping garment preference genetic? that's another post...) laughing our butts off. She opened the door a bit and the bat was going around and around again. We had no idea what to do so we called her sister's cell phone. Her sister is the organized one who always knows what to do, or seems to. It is amazing she could understand the message the next morning becase we were laughing so hard. My clothes were in teh room so I went in the living room where my kids were and stole one of their t-shirts, wrapped a big towel around my rear and my mom got her robe on. She called the security guy and he came in and cought the thing bare-handed (not smart) and got bitten about 20 times in the process. he wrapped it in a towel and released it outside.

It took a while for me to get back to sleep.

I did worry about the guy but I called to check on him a week later and he was fine, in spite of not getting shots.

I would get the shots, but then I would not catch the thing with my bare hands!

Sunny

(sorry so long, I just could not leave out the details) :)

[punkmommy]

I think bats are cool. We're going to buit some bat houses in the early spring to help control the really bad mosquito problems in my area. Here's a link on bat facts and how-to's on making bat houses http://www.batcon.org/bhra/index.html

[superjane]

I hate mice, snakes, and rodents, but for some unknown reason I like bats. Even though they live in southern Manitoba, I hardly ever see them, so it's cool when I do.

[peace]

www.batcon.org has advice on removing individual bats from a room. (It's basically the "bug method"--place a shoe box over the bat and slide a piece of thin cardboard underneath the box.)

[carnelian]

I think bats are absolutely amazing creatures! The last time I saw one in person was last fall. I work for a college in downtown Chicago, and an international student I was sponsoring found it on the sidewalk as she was walking to the building I work in. She knows I'm an animal freak, so she picked it up carefully, put it in a box, and brought it to my office. I made a comfy nest for my new buddy in an envelope box lined with a bunch of kleenex, covering it with the lid I had poked a bunch of holes in. I live just outside of the city, and there's a forest preserve with an animal sanctuary on the premises that's fairly close by. I called ahead of time to see if they would take a look at the bat to see if he was okay, and they said yes. The little feller and I rode the train together and then in my car to the forest preserve. The man there examined him and determined that he was okay. He took the bat outside, where he promptly flew away. If the student hadn't found him when she did, I'm sure someone would have stepped on him. He was such a cutie!

[kat]

I've always thought bats are pretty cute. But my time in Africa I found them a bit freaky. There were some trees on one of the main roads near where I stayed. And in this particularly group of trees lived a huge bat colony. At certain times of the day they would all start flying and the sky would be literally black from the sheer number of them. Thousands, maybe even millions. Like a huge swarm of birds, the amount of sh*t falling down was pretty dangerous too! Also they made the squeeching bat sound and that was pretty eerie.

We once stayed in a hut, they didn't charge us and it was so bad in one room there was a huge hole in the wall. No electricity and no running water. But we had these lovely gas lamps. We got up very early in the morning to see the hippos, it was freezing cold and pitched black. We lit the lamp and this bat started flying about. It was swoshing over our heads back and forth. We also went in a bat cave which was pretty cool.

Kat

[berrykat]

i love flying foxes a type of fruitbat. Bats are too cool anything that eats its weight in mosquitos every night is awesome.