If you find a bat on the ground, in your house or anywhere else ... don't touch it! Leave it alone then call us!
There are many myths and misconceptions about bats and although these wives tales are not true, care should be taken with any wildlife that is injured or disoriented. Additional caution should be used with mammals due to the danger of rabies. In fact most bats are very gentle, beneficial (and believe it or not) mammals just like humans.
Bats do NOT want to land in your hair
Bats do NOT turn into vampires
Bats are NOT mice with wings
Bats are NOT blind
Bats do NOT all have rabies
Many people don't realize how important bats are to us. They are harmless, under-appreciated eaters of millions of mosquitoes. Bats are the most successful predators of night flying insects. A single bat can eat up to 3,000 insects in one night and an average size colony can eat up to a half million insects every night! Bats can eat almost their full body weight in insects. By comparison, an adult human would have to eat about 160 pounds of food in one night!
Unfortunately, bats are persecuted because of misinformation and their preference to live in man made structures. Bats commonly roost behind fascia boards, under siding, in attics and behind shutters. They can go unnoticed there, or announce their presence with droppings or squeaking of young bats in the spring. Large colonies can leave quite a mess, unpleasant and unsanitary.
When you call us about bats the first thing we ask is for a little detective work by the customer. We need to know approximately how many bats are involved and where their exit / entry points are. Enlist the help of friends or family to have a "bat watch". Start at sunset, watching the house to see where the exit sites are, and continue until one hour after sunset . Bats can fit through small openings and move very fast so you may want to watch for a few nights making sure you haven't missed anything.
Armed with this information, CALL US, and we can then come to the house to examine the structure for an estimate.
The Bug Runner uses exclusion techniques for bat control. We do the work after bat "maternity season" (in our area after July 4th is usually safe) when nursing young are graduating to life out of the roost. Offering new roosting sites nearby can help prevent future problems. Properly installed bat houses can keep bats in your area without them being in your house. We do not sell bat houses at this time, but do encourage customers to consider them and have links to sites that do sell them. As mentioned earlier, bats are an extremely beneficial animal whose mosquito eating power is especially coveted with the current encephalitis problem.
A single little brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes an hour
The 20 million Mexican Free-tail bats from Bracken cave Texas eat 250 TONS of insects nightly
Most bats produce only one offspring each year
Weighing less than a penny, the Bumblebee Bat from Thailand is the worlds smallest mammal
Fishing bats can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair protruding only two millimeters above the waters surface
Vampire bats will adopt orphans and risk their own lives to share food with less fortunate roost mates
Nearly 40% of American bat species are in decline or already listed as endangered
Rainforest and desert ecosystems are both dependant on bats for pollination and seed dispersal
Vampire bat saliva contains an anticoagulant being researched for use in human heart patients
Indonesian bats called Giant Flying Foxes have wingspans of 6 feet!
The Pallid bat eats scorpions and seven inch centipedes - it is immune to their stings
The Honduran white bat has snow white fur with a yellow nose and ears - it builds sheltering "tents" from large leaves to protect it's colonies from the elements
Mommy bats in Mexican Free-tail bat colonies can find their babies amidst millions - roosting as densely as 500 bats per square foot!
