BS: anyone know anything about Bats

Subject: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:06 PM

two nights ago I left my bedroom window open ... yup got a bat flying around my bedroom when I was sleep ... I felt a breeze when to swat and ended up grabbing a very small bat.   Now there is a lot of rabies rants around these parts mainly about raccoons but I found out something. The little guy cannot bite. The teeth could not even come close to breaking the skin on my thumb. I took em outside and let him go ...

What is the real truth of bat bites ... I realize there are a lot of species of bats but here in the eastern US   I can't see how one of the critters could bite you ...

When I was an undergraduate I took a biology course and my prof showed us the same thing ... cannot break the skin they are designed to eat bugs not animals... I know they are mammals hence they can get rabies but from what I read they are not carriers ...

so do I need to get the 4 million shots here ... I am sure my health dept would say yes but truthfully that was a nice looking little bat who sure seemed healthy to me ...

by the way, the chirping they produce clicking sound, goes right into you head ... amazing sound ...

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:12 PM

What kind of bat was it, do you know? Obviously some bats can break the skin- there are bloodsucking bats, you know.

By the way, count yourself lucky - they say that most people can't hear a bat's call after about the age of 14. I don't know about a 'bat in the hand' though.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:17 PM

don't know Ebbie, kinda looked like a flying mouse with tiny little fish type teeth ... I will tell you though the clicking chirp, I could feel it right in my forehead ... amazing high pitch chirp ... I suppose I would be very concerned if I had an open cut or something but that guy could not even dent the skin ... I washed off with antibiotic soap afterwords ...

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: maeve
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:22 PM

Dan, that sounds to me like the Little Brown bat. Try a search and see if it looks like your furry friend. They are fascinating little creatures!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:29 PM

Maeve
that was the guy for sure ... seems pretty harmless to me. The article on the web said sharp teeth ... I would say for a bug maybe. That guy was trying pretty hard to nail me ... I just laughed ... no way couldn't even dent my skin ... but that was the culprit ... he took off in a hurry when I took him outside. I was more afraid of being scratched. I actually caught him by the wing half sleep ... what are the odds of that huh

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: ranger1
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 01:36 PM

Dan, might have been a baby. Adults can break the skin. If it didn't break the skin, probably ok, but might want to check with a doctor anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:03 PM

From the description I just read, I suspect he was a baby or a yearling. Just a little guy ... probably why I actually grabbed him in flight. I suspect and adult would not be so easy to catch...

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:26 PM

If the bat was infected, it's not necessary that the bat be able to break the skin by biting. You might have an opening from some other cause as insignificant as an ingrown hair or a pimple you've popped recently, or the bat might be able to scratch with its claws enough to make a small opening. If the bat deposits saliva (or other body fluids) in contact with any opening, perhaps while trying to bite in the vicinity of an existing scratch there is some risk of infection, although in this case it seems a very slight risk.

The most "telling" warning is that you were able to catch this one a bit too easily, which might indicate it was "unhealthy." A healthy bat usually is very difficult to get a grip on unless it's landed somehwere. They're a bit clumsy about walking. But the kind that fly around barnyards in my vicinity are quick enough when in flight to evade shotgun pellets - apparently quite easily - or to catch them 'cause they "echo" like a fast moving bug if they're at long enough range to have slowed a bit.

John

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: gnu
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:28 PM

Yes... musta been a wee pup. They can easily bite through the skin. And, they can give you a nasty scratch of puncture without using their teeth.

Good info on browns.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: gnu
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:42 PM

Evade shotgun pellets? Hehehehe. I doubt that. More likely, their speed and erratic flight patterns are too much of a match for the shooter. And, it's usually kinda dark for precision gunning.

Catching a bat is easy if you know how.

Now... here is one for you... say the kids are restless and they need some real strenuous exercise so that they will go to bed early and sleep well. Give em a broom stick or similar and tell them they will $5 per bat they can swat out of the air.

Ain't gonna spend a dime. And, when the bats realize they have a fun game to play messing with the humans, they will play for hours.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:45 PM

From gnu's link:
"Rabies in bats is very uncommon however the few cases of rabies reported in the Atlantic provinces are mostly attributed to bats. In 1989 one case of rabies in a fox on the south coast of Newfoundland was thought to be due to contact with a rabid bat. This does not suggest that people should be afraid of bats but rather they should treat bats with respect and caution. Any bat or other wild animal found under unusual circumstances (brought in by the cat, or seeming to be sick i.e. flapping around on the ground during the daytime) should be reported to local wildlife officers. If the bat must be handled do so with gloves and place in a protective container.

"Occasionally a bat, usually young and inexperienced, enters through a window. Leaving doors and windows open will allow it to escape."

The brown bat is the only one we have in Alaska. S'pity, though. We have enough flying varmints to keep 'em fat and healthy.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: ced2
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 02:53 PM

English Willow is the only accepted material for bats, some Aussie tried using one made of aluminium but it was banned. As for getting rid of them top quality bowling seems to work well. Usually the English ones crumple quickly but today it was the turn of the Aussies.. lost all ten for less than 90 ha ha ha ha ( etc etc etc)

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: gnu
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 03:15 PM

Yes, Ebbie. Matter of fact, a far worse problem exists if you contact bat shit or breathe any "vapours" from it. It's as bad as any rodent shit. Kill you with nasty lung disease.

My buddy that bought my Camp #2 up Kent County has no skeeter problem (next to a backwash slough and the river). That camp is bounded on four sides by woods. So, it's a haven for flies... and a feeding ground for bats. Previously, there were bats in tha attic of the camp and since they were excluded, they nest in the trees next to the camp. The neighbours are driven indoors by the flies but the lads at #2 wear shorts.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 03:48 PM

cde2, took me a moment. I do believe, though, that in America, ash is the reserved for bats. (Simple instructions: Scrape out the contents of a fireplace into a metal tub, dump in a noncombustible spot and gradually thicken it with spring, has to be spring, water- (can't be done in autumn). Form into desired shape, smooth with fine grade sandpaper. Paint as desired)

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 04:54 PM

Aside from vampire bats, which probably don't exist in most plaxes where Mudcatters live (see map here), bats aren't interested in getting too close to human, and they are pretty adept at avoiding it.

Even in a limited space, a bat is never going to collide with you if you keep still.   It may seem like a dark room to you, but to a bat it's like bright daylight, thanks to their echo-location.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: gnu
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 05:03 PM

Sorry to jump in so often... but they do like getting close to humans sometimes. Like, when a human is tending a task with little movement. Skeeters are drawn to the human and bats love to eat skeeters. I enjoyed the close company of bats many times at my camp when tending the BBQ with a flashlight on the deck. With the bats eating skeeters by the hundreds, I was subject to only dozens of skeeters bites. Felt the bat wind on my neck many times.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 05:44 PM

Not to worry, Oldster...

Bats is our friends... They eat half their weight in bugs a day!!! A pregnant female eats her entire weight on one day of bugs... It is very rare to have a rabied bat... Very rare and in most cases, like raccons or foxes when they are rabied, they will be actin' real strange for bats...

One bad thing, BTW, about bats is that many are dieing from "white nose desease" and that is not a good thing becuase of the benefits they are to mankind in controlling insects...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 05:54 PM

Wow. I had never heard of the disease, Bobert. But evidently: "What we've seen so far is unprecedented," said Alan Hicks, DEC's bat specialist. "Most bat researchers would agree that this is the gravest threat to bats they have ever seen."

That is sad and I hope the surviving bats develop an immunity to it.

We seem to be sitting in a house whose very walls are crumbling, folks. We better find new wall materials fast.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 06:11 PM

Aussie bats carry the lyssia virus, and also recently are suspected to carry the Hendra Virus, the latter has recently been in the news as fatal to humans, but does not seem to affect the bats.

It has also been claimed that Aussie 'bats' (flying foxes) are slightly different to European or US 'bats'. I'm not an expert. Aussie bats seem to prefer fruit.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 06:25 PM

A rabies bite is usually a single minded unprovoked attack but a bite from being grabbed sounds only defensive.

We play with bats every nite we use the pool. She uses the lights for bug collection and swoops low to take a drink on the wing. She will even fly within a foot of our heads which we find great fun. Her name is Betty Bat

Our bat seems solitary compared to previous years when several were seen at once.

Parasitic disease is a bitch but it can come from anywhere from plants to insects to fish etc.
Mice can carry Hanta virus in thier feces which is fatal to humans without treatment.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 06:58 PM

All depends what you mean by close. You might feel them skim past you all right at times, but they'll never bump into you.

Watching bats patrol the garden or the street in front of the house, at twilight can be fun - that strange way they have of falling through the air, it's a very different motion from birds. (Here's the kind of thing I'm talking about

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 08:46 PM

Thinking of setting out a bat house on a large tree we have.
Plans here:
Wildlife protection bats

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 08:49 PM

At the above site, look at the Alberta site for a really simple bat house.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: open mike
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 09:55 PM

i have a neighbor who was bitten by a bat and it tested positive for rabies, so he and his dog had to have shots...he couldn't prove that his dog was up to date on preventative shots , and ther ewas no evidence of the dog actually being bitten, but they still wanted to quarantine the dog. There have been reports of rabid foxes on the calif coast attacking people in the parks.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12972945
here is more about the white nose disease
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89764381
Some caves in thenorth east are being closed to humans for fear
that humans are transporting the fungus or disease to other caves.

I had "bats in my belfry" the walls of my upstairs room were
busy with bats in the summer...they migrrated away in winter
and i was cautioned to cover up any entrance holes while they
were away so when they came back they would have to nest else
where. they did often come in the house...sometimes thru the
chimney.. they are welcome to all the mosquitos they can get!
I did find some dead ones on the roof and took them to the
health dept to test...one showed positive...the others were
too dessicated to tell. I gbelieve that in order to test for
Rabies the animal needs to be killed and dissected...no other
way to test...http://www.cdc.gov/RABIES/bats.html

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 09:55 PM

My doc buddie called to talk fishin in the high Rockies. His kid is out there near my 3 girls. He said unless it attacked me and it broke the skin he had little worry. We do have rabies in the area, mostly raccoons and skunks. He said the same thing as you folks. Most likely a baby who came in the open window to chase some bug ... Really can most people not hear that chirp?   It was amazing and so high. I really could feel the vibration of the sound hitting my forehead. I am sure it was much louder because he or she was scared but it was amazing actually. I petted him on the head. Cute little thing. Looked like a field mouse with big ears

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Smokey.
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 09:59 PM

Scottish bats can certainly draw blood. I was rescuing the ungrateful little sod too.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 10:08 PM

I confess to not having read the entire thread carefully, but did not see anyone say that bat bites are so small that they often go undetected.

Don't know about your region, Dan, but rabies is a fairly common and significant problem where I live in North Carolina. About every 8 or 10 years the problem balloons into a significant epidemic, so we tend to be vigilant.   It is essential here that when contact by humans or pets is had with animal species that are known carriers, especially when there is some indication of unusual behavior by the carrier species animal, that the risk of rabies be taken very seriously.   This season, which is not an especially bad one, two women have been bitten by rabid foxes within a 15 mile radius of my home, and rabies thus far has been confirmed in other foxes, bats, raccoons and skunks within that same radius, at least one just a few blocks from my house.

I am a lover and observer of the natural world and a bit (a very small bit, admittedly) of a naturalist. Saying this so you know I am not coming from a place of fear of the environment and it's inhabitants, but from a place of rational caution. Where Donuel lives, rabies may be a pretty rare occurrence, and bats an even more rare carrier. Where I live, "playing" with bats would be foolhardy. That doesn't mean bats are to be feared and avoided, but it does mean I don't want them in my house, nor to intentionally allow them to fly close or become acclimated to my very near presence. If a bat intentionally approaches me, I need for that to be a warning sign of abnormal behavior. The same may not be true in areas or regions where rabies is uncommon or rare.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 10:39 PM

Janie
that is excellent advice for sure. I thought about it pretty hard. If I had notice him being sick I probably would take all the shots. When I let him go it took off like a rocket and was flying like a normal bat. I think it was just a baby, this guy was maybe an inch and a half long (half the size from the web details). When I washed my hands and put alcohol on the thumb ... I felt nothing no sting or anything so I figured he could not have gone through the skin at all. I didn't see anything unusual about him ... no saliva or anything he just wanted to get away. So I will avoid the shots for now unless my doc buddie says to do something

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 11:25 PM

Ahh, just what I like. A rational thinker:O)

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Peace
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 12:59 AM

"anyone know anything about Bats"

I prefer wood to the aluminum ones.


The bat you speak of, olddude, is very common in Canada's north. They do more than their share to keep mosquitoes under control. However, they have been know to carry rabies. You seem to have taken sensible precautions.

I have a dozen wise-assed remarks but I'll leave them for now.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 10:50 AM

No animal is a natural carrier of rabies. Some bats can carry rabies the way a skunk, fox or human can. (That's known as being a 'vector') They get sick and eventually die, but in the meantime, can spread it. Some animals die relatively quickly after becoming infectious, some take longer, and some animals, we don't know how long it takes.

There's a 10-day 'quarantine' on unvaccinated dogs and cats that bite someone because they will die within that 10 day period. Then their brains are examined for signs of rabies. The bitten person will have started shots before the results are known.

Rabies is spread through saliva. Other infectious body fluids may do it, but it's usually saliva, because it gets through the skin via through a bite.

Back to bats. Most of them are just fine. They get the bad rap because if you happen to be bitten by the one bat out of ten thousand (POOP*) that has rabies and you blow it off until months later you start being light-sensitive and having throat spasms, rapidly lose any marbles you might have until you rave and scream yourself into a coma... and then you die.

In short, most bats are fine, but rabies is serious. Don't get bitten, but if you do, capture the bat or save the dead one and GET THEE TO A DOCTOR. If it didn't bite you or spit in your eyeball, you shouldn't have any problem.

Honestly, the best way to get a bat that's flown in your open window out of your bedroom is to leave the window open and maybe pull curtains out of the way.

*POOP= 'Pulled Out Of Posterior'

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 02:32 PM

My daughter tells me that the bat population is way down in the Foothills ranching country SE of Calgary where she lives.
She suspects the 'white nose disease', but doesn't know for certain.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 03:07 PM

Anyone asked Bat Goddess? Hope she's doing okay.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 04:58 PM

Sorry, guys. Bat Goddess hasn't had a lot of computer time lately. (Okay, so blame Facebook for hogging.)

Back to bats...almost all of my experience is with the Little Brown Bats that had set up housekeeping under our roof (literally -- in the few inches of space between our sheetrock bedroom cathedral ceiling and the roof itself) for a few years. Nursery colony -- so every first week in July the adolescent bats would go out on their own for the first time and get lost and end up in our bedroom. (They managed to get in alongside the chimney.) The young bats' wings were still growing at the rate of about 1/8 inch a day, so no wonder they got confused. We usually just left the window open (and slept in the guest room for the night). Never found any bat skeletons, so they all got out okay.

Found a tiny bat on the foot of my bed one early Spring morning. I was afraid of hurting it if I touched it, so I slipped a paper towel under it and took it out on the deck for mama to find. Had one adolescent try to "walk home" one night -- across Tom's shoulders. When Tom leaped out of bed it sort of startled him. Turned on the light and the little guy was looking very disgruntled on the floor in front of the dresser. Alas, he didn't find his way out that night. I ended up scooping him up out of my bath the next day. Carried him in a collander (I wore stove gloves -- nothing else, just stove gloves) while I dripped down the stairs and out on the quarterdeck. Fortunately, I live in an area where I can stand starkers on my deck without scaring anyone. Took the cover of the collander and dripped back upstairs to continue my bubble bath. Little guy evidently got home okay. Then there was the one in the bedroom when I came home from getting an award from Hampton Rotary. He landed in the pile of clothes on the wicker rocker and when I went over to try to get him into a basket to walk him outside, he just climbed up the front of my blouse and hung on. Carried him downstairs and set him down on the table on the deck. I'm sure he got home okay, too.

Whenever I think I might have to handle a bat, I use the thick leather stove gloves as a precaution -- if they're nervous or afraid, who knows what any animal -- domestic or wild -- might do. Here in New Hampshire rabies is usually found in coyotes, raccoons or skunks. Lord knows we've got plenty of them, but people seem to worry more about the bats who are usually healthy. Obviously avoid a bat acting strange or sick, but most of them are fine. Try to keep bat guano on the garden, not in your house. Probably more health hazards from bat, squirrel and mouse & vole poop than from contact with the animal.

Which reminds me, I've got to clean flying squirrel poop out of the closet now that THEY'VE moved out. (Not sure whether the bats chased out the flying squirrels or vice versa, but both of them seem to have left this "wildlife refuge" -- not that it was a refuge from the cats!)

I like bats a lot -- they're very peaceful devourers of mosquitoes. I prefer their living quarters to not be directly above my bed because they make a heck of a clatter & chatter when they arrive home after a hard night's hunt, but I like having them in the general vicinity and enjoy seeing them swoop across the driveway when I come home from work.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 06:23 PM

Someone should cross bats with crickets... ready made cricket bats would be welcome... save all the work!

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:35 AM

It was quoted somewhere recently that, whilst birds generally don't have a problem with wind-turbines (although I'm not convinced on that one), bats do. Apparently, their sonar detection system finds it difficult to detect a turning turbine blade and they subsequently get mashed up!

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 10:48 AM

Thanks for coming in here, Linn. I remember your bat stories with fondness and always enjoy hearing more. Also the other critter adventures.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 10:55 AM

Linn
I never knew much about bats. Now I find myself on my deck at night watching the critters take out the sea of mosquitoes that are all over my yard since the awful rains we had this summer.   They can really move ... from what I can now tell, they are all the little brown bats that I got up close and personal with. ...

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Girl Friday
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 11:10 AM

Bats are seen flying around the trees in my street, though I never heard of one actually entering a house before.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 11:38 AM

A depressing story on "white nose syndrome" from NPR, All Things Considered, August 19, 2009

Scientists Say Bat Disease Likely To Spread
by Brian Mann

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

And now to an epidemic that is devastating bats. Scientists say white nose syndrome is spreading rapidly in North America. They now fear that the continent's most common bat species could be wiped out in the next few years. As North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports, biologists are still trying to understand basic questions about the epidemic.

BRIAN MANN: Imagine for a moment if one of the most common birds in North America - robins, say, or blue jays - were to suddenly disappear, that's exactly what Brock Fenton at the University of Western Ontario says it's happening to bats.

Dr. BROCK FENTON (Bat Researcher, University of Western Ontario): The brown bat will be extirpated in the Northeast within 10 years. That's, like, unbelievable, right? Because, I mean, those are the bats in everybody's church and cottage.

MANN: Fenton is one of the top bat researchers in the world. On a summer evening, his team is testing bats at a nursery colony in Willsboro, New York.

Unidentified Woman: All right they're number is going to be three, zero…

MANN: Some of the thumb-sized bats are being fixed with radio transmitters.

(Soundbite of beep)

MANN: Two years ago, a fungal disease called white nose syndrome was identified in a handful of caves near Albany, a couple of hours drive from here. The fungus seems to drive the most common species of North American bats crazy, disrupting their delicate pattern of feeding and hibernating and damaging their wings. Scientist hope the epidemic would be limited to the Northeast. But, in the months since, white nose has spread fast, as far away as West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Millions of animals have died and Fenton says, this summer, they're finding whole nesting sites that have been depopulated.

Dr. FENTON: They're so few little brown bats active. I don't see anything to be happy about.

MANN: Researchers fear that white nose will reach vitally important bat colonies in Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Tennessee in the next year. Dr. Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, told a congressional panel in June, that the epidemic could spread coast to coast.

Dr. THOMAS KUNZ (Director, Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Boston University): This is one of the most devastating conditions I have ever observed. We are witnessing one of the most precipitous declines of wildlife in North America.

MANN: What that will mean to the environment is still a complete mystery. But, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that losing bats could cost farmers a billion dollars a year. People think of bats as pests, but Brock Fenton says the truth is exactly the opposite.

Dr. FENTON: So, each of these bats is eating half its body weight in insects every night. (unintelligible) pregnancy, a lactating female, she's eating her own body weight in insects every night. So, that's a hell of a lot of insects.

MANN: Scientists have fanned out through the infected area, trying to understand and hopefully slow the spread of white nose.

(Soundbite of door opening)

MANN: On a hot summer day Fenton drags himself through a tiny hatchway, into the broiling attic of Willsboro's Methodist church.

Dr. FENTON: See the formation's growing? Made from crystallized bat urine, we call them pisscicles(ph). The name tells you everything you needed to know about it.

MANN: Fenton and his graduate students wade through calf-deep bat dung. They dangle precariously from the rafters, snagging furious, little brown bats and stuffing them in paper bags.

(Soundbite of tapping)

MANN: The work here is meant to answer a big question. Does white nose syndrome only spread in caves contaminated with the fungus spores, or did it spread readily from bat to bat in the summer colonies?

Dr. FENTON: We don't have the answer to that.

MANN: Which means they still don't know for sure how far or fast the epidemic will travel. This kind of research has been hampered by what Fenton and others say is a desperate lack of funding. State and federal agencies, grappling with the disease, have seen their budgets slashed in recent years. At the congressional hearing in June, Marvin Moriarty, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said his agency had spent only around $5 million on white nose syndrome nationwide. That drew this response from Representative Madeleine Bordallo.

Representative MADELEINE BORDALLO (Democrat, Guam): To address an issue that could be - have national implications…

Mr. MARVIN MORIARTY (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service): Exactly.

Rep. BORDALLO: …I think is a drop on the bucket.

Mr. MORIARTY: It is.

MANN: State and federal agencies have closed caves to human traffic, as far away as Ohio and Tennessee, in an effort to stop accidental transmission of white nose spores. Scientists have also begun trying to identify isolated bat colonies on islands and in remote mountain valleys that might survive a mass extinction.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Rowan
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 01:30 AM

My experience of bats is limited to Oz, where they're grouped into the microbats (about the size of a flying mouse) that are insectivorous and flying foxes (about the size of a not very large flying cat) that are fructivores. Some biologists reckon the evolutionary histories of the two groups are vastly different.

When I was involved in bat banding (several decades ago) there was concern that many bat populations in the Top End had migratory patterns overlapping those in Papua New Guinea, where there was "rabies" as well as overlapping those of bat populations south of the Top End. There is no rabies in Oz so our efforts were encouraged.

Subsequent events have indicated that the PNG "rabies" is more likely to be the Lyssa virus that Foolestroupe mentioned; the two infections are in the same group, apparently. While the microbats are most unlikely to bite through an adult's skin, repeated handling of bats while banding them can gradually erode your skin so that blood is eventually drawn, but I've never heard of either type of bat biting people in Oz.

It appears that Lyssa virus and Hendra virus are both transmitted from bats by being exposed to their urine; they urinate while flying as well as when they're roosting. It is believed exposure to urine mist is the method by which bats in populations are also infected. This resonates with some info I picked up years ago about a cave in the US that was used by a large bat colony; people who entered this cave had to wear SCBA (or CABA) and full hazmat gear to prevent being infected with rabies, as it was carried in the urine mist from the colony.

The guano in caves and mines colonised by bats is often full of Histoplasmosis spores, which stay dormant until inhaled by a warm blooded animal. The fungal spores then germinate in the lungs and, basically, take over the alveolar cavities competing with the pulmonary tissue for oxygen. Untreated, it is fatal. A geologist friend of mine copped it while investigating an old adit and, fortunately, had it correctly diagnosed by his GP (who is also mine). Considering there are only one or two cases per decade in Oz, this earned our GP some praise; the xrays of my geologist mate's lungs looked like a space full of cobwebs; his mate had also copped an infection and required ICU treatment for several weeks. Poultry manure can also harbour Histoplasmosis, so beware.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Peace
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 01:39 AM

"This resonates with some info I picked up years ago about a cave in the US that was used by a large bat colony; people who entered this cave had to wear SCBA (or CABA) and full hazmat gear to prevent being infected with rabies, as it was carried in the urine mist from the colony."

I read the same study, Rowan. It seemed to be the first recognition that rabies could be aerosol.

I like bats. Like to have them around because of the vast number of bugs they devour in their nocturnal hunt. I hope science is paying attention because despite not being the most lovable of this planet's creatures, like bees they perform a needed function in the ecosphere.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Rowan
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 03:11 AM

The Oz fruit bats are major pollinators in our tropical and subtropical forests. Without them there is almost inevitable senescence.

And I like them too. The microbats are truly amazing creatures and the foxes behave in ways that are just so difficult to not anthropomorphise.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Mr Happy
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 09:45 AM

Willow?

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Arnie
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 09:56 AM

Last week I was watching small bats flying around a farmhouse in Normandy. The owner was a Brit and I pointed them out to him - he said that they came from a barn but would roost anywhere around his house. He frequently found them hanging upside down behind the shutters. Unfortunately he wasn't up on his bat identification - I thought they might be pipistrelles but difficult to say without seeing one roosting.

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 10:40 AM

Little Brown Bats! My personal favorites (prolly because of personal experience).

Bats don't intentionally fly into a house's living space -- in my case, they accidently slip through around the chimney (or, in the case of the baby, through the 1 or 1-1/2 inch gap in the sheetrock at the ceiling's peak and around the 2x6 trim piece). Even if I don't help them, they usually find their way out again.

Alas, my nursery colony seems to have abandoned us -- the flying squirrels and the bats loathed each other and seem to have chased each other out to seek other habitation. (And I guess that's good...) But I truly enjoy having Little Brown Bats in the vicinity. Before they moved into our roof, they, uh, "hung out" under the sumac that then infested my "back yard".

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Tally Ho Man
Date: 28 Aug 09 - 06:22 AM

I have a wife who could be! (She married me)!

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: freda underhill
Date: 28 Aug 09 - 11:03 AM

I have bats in the back yard - grey headed flying foxes to be precise. I can hear them screeching outside in the trees at night. If you click here on the audio link, you can hear them too.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: Alice
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 03:49 PM

In the news today:
VIDEO sky fills with 20 million bats

Subject: RE: BS: anyone know anything about Bats
From: LilyFestre
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 04:38 PM

I know they seemed to like the music (most likely all the bugs from the lights) at the Big & Rich concert last night!!! There were several of them swooping around which garnered them a great deal of attention!

Michelle