Sanitation and Safety

SLVHD | Environmental Health| Sanitation and Safety

Dark shapes glide through the night sky on silent wings, their sinister shadows outlined against the light of the full moon. Swooping down to the earth, they hover near houses and deserted buildings breaking the peace of the night with their disturbing presence.

***BATS***

The very word brings a shiver of fear to most people, but what most people don't know is that bats are very important to our world. Bats are gentle animals that help create a healthy environment for people. Not only do they eat a tremendous number of insects, they carry pollen from one plant to another. They also spread seeds of many plants valuable to humans.

WHAT IS A BAT

Bats are mammals just like us.
They have furry bodies and wings with no hair.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly.
Because they are mammals, bats are born alive.
Baby bats are called pups, and have to be taken care of for an extended period of time.
The females possess mammary glands where milk is produced to feed the young.
Bats have arms, wrists, and hands with a thumb and four fingers.
The bones of the hands and fingers are very long and form the structure of the wing.
Their wings are really webbed hands. Thin, elastic skin stretches right across their very long fingers to their hind legs.
There are over 950 different kinds of bats.
They vary greatly in size, color and habits.
Most bats measure about 8-12 inches from wing tip to wing tip and weigh less than an ounce.
Bats rely on sounds to navigate, communicate and capture insects.
They can produce as many as 250 beeps per second.
When these sounds hit an object, they bounce back to the bats as echos. From these echoes bats can determine the size, shape, texture, and distance of objects. This process is called echolocation.
Most species of bats eat night-flying insects. In a laboratory study, little brown bats capture as many as 1200 fruit flies per hour, or 1 in every three seconds.
Other bats eat fruit. In their roles as pollinators, bats have contributed to the growth of tropical plants such as bananas, dates, figs, avocados, cashews, and cloves.
Bats have small, but perfectly good eyes. They can see in daylight just like other mammals.
Bats choose all kinds of dark nooks and crannies for their homes called roosts.
They can crawl on all fours, sleep upside down for hours at a time and even give themselves a good cleaning while dangling by one foot.
When it is not in flight, a bat's normal position is head down.
A bats hold on its roost is so powerful that it may not be broken even when the animal dies.
Bats do drink water.
Bats are pollinators, seed dispensers and pest controllers.

BATS AND RABIES

Most bats are clean, healthy and not aggressive toward humans.
Bats are shy and avoid people.
Even sick bats rarely attack, unless they are threatened.
Bats do get rabies, as do most mammals.
Unlike some animals, rabid bats are not aggressive.
NEVER handle a bat or enter a bat's roosting area.
IF YOU FIND A BAT ON THE GROUND, DO NOT PICK IT UP OR HANDLE IT.

BATS AND HUMANS

No matter how much a person may appreciate the contributions of bats to a healthy ecosystem, the unpleasantness of sharing living quarters with them can be intolerable.

HOW CAN BATS BE PERSUADED TO MOVE OUT?

A liberal deposit of mothballs or naphthalene flakes, an odorous deterrent will generally drive them out.
During the daylight hours, check the roost area. The places where you can see daylight need to be sealed, caulked, or screened.
For several days, open the area up at dusk and close it again at dark. The bats will try to come back and re-occupy this area.
Their environment can also be altered by raising the level of illumination. Flood lights can be set up in attic roosts.
You can also contact a professional pest control operator.

BATS AND PETS

If you see your pet playing with a sick or injured bat, notify your local animal control.
DO NOT PICK UP OR HANDLE THE BAT.