Trying to attract bats to your garden doesn't mean you want them in your house. I agree that no one should allow bats to roost in their house because of the rabies danger. But attracting them to your ourdoor space is quite a different thing. Our native bats certainly do not attack people in the outdoors! Simply not using pesticides will attract them, and it's just part of sensible ecological gardening.

I enjoy sitting out during early evenings and seeing the bats swoop all around me (and wish I had this many at home) while camping in Wyoming. Literally, where I camp, we attract bats...because we're the only warm-blooded animals visible to attract the mosquitos and other small nighttime biters...so we're also 'bat bars' I suppose.
They quite literally come within inches of us, but don't alarm anyone. I would love to have more than the occassional single bat visit, which is all I get at home in Oklahoma.
Racoons, opossums, skunks, dogs, cats,etc, all carry rabies...why pick on bats w/o outlawing all those other critters?

I am so sorry to hear about the little girl, Molly. I certainly understand your concern. Please consider what has been mentioned above. Bats can be very frightening, but useful little critters. With the increasing West Nile Virus reports... transmitted by mosquitos, I am happy that a natural predator like the bat exists. For instance, did you know that one Little Brown Bat can consume over 900 insects in 1 hour? That's a lot of mosquitos. However,I agree, inside the house it IS a health issue and should be dealt with. I hope this eases your concerns a little. ddot

It is unfortuneate that there are so many un-truths about bats.

1) the chances of getting a bat in the house, assuming you have a modern sealed house is almost zero. They may live in the attic but they rarely find their way into a house since the attic is sealed from the rest of the house.

2) if they end up in the house, the chance of being bitten by one while you sleep is even rarer. They do not bite people.

3) the number of cases of rabies being transmitted to people is extremely low. More people die from dog bits than rabid bats, but we are not afraid of dogs. For example in the last 20 years, there have been only 2 cases of human rabies in B.C.

4) they may eat 900 insects in one hour, but few of these will be mosquitos. Mosquitos are too small for the bat to bother with - they like larger insects - a lot of moths.

5) I would be very surprised if finding rabid bats in your attic would require you to get treatment. It would be like treating everybody who might see a rabid chipmunk or skunk or dog. If you find one in your bedroom you might get treatment because there is a chance you got bitten and do not know it.

Know one worries about the cute and cuddly animals getting rabies,just the scary evil looking ones.....BOOH!!!

Madtripper, you need to educate yourself a little bit about bats. According to factual resources, bats ARE the leading cause for cases of rabies in humans. They DO get into homes fairly commonly.

I believe that Molly is overboard in her concern and worry about these wonderful little animals, but caution and common sense is required when dealing with these and any wild animal.

The story about the little girl, by the way, is a true one.

Here is a link that might be useful: General information about bats

We are actually going to try to encourage bats. I think the threat of west nile from a mosquito is much more threatening to me than rabies from a bat who doesn't care anything about ME. We live in a woodlot and the mosquitoes can be pretty nasty. To me the bats are much better off being in my back yard so we are going to build bat boxes to encourage them. A single bat can eat upwards of 3,000 mosquitos per night. Over the course of the summer that's a better average than a bug zapper ;o) and in combination with a DEET repellant and longsleeves, sitting around the campfire is much more pleasant.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA zone 6a

Have you taken a look at the Bat Conservation International site? Always full of good information about how to have a bat friendly yard and community. There is mucho information about bat houses, etc., in the Conservation Programs section of the attached link.

We have swarms of bats that we watch every evening in the summer and fall here. A bat house or two is on our list of things to add, as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: BCI

rhizo - I have looked at your reference web site.

It does say that bats are the leading cause of rabies in humans, but it also says that only a few people die from rabies each year. If bats cause most of a 'few deaths', then surely bats cause fewer than a few deaths.

So my statement agrees with your reference (the number of cases of rabies being transmitted to people is extremely low. More people die from dog bits than rabid bats, but we are not afraid of dogs. )

The article also says "Carefully examine your home for holes that might allow bats entry into your living quarters. Any openings larger than a quarter-inch by a half-inch should be caulked." Since most modern homes do not have such large holes to the outside, it can be concluded that bats can not get into the home. Note that I did not include the atic in my post.

Your reference does not support your conclusion that "bats DO get into homes fairly commonly". Please do not misinform the public.

Rhizo - your reference helps to confirm everything I said in my post.

This data is from the CDC or references the CDC quotes - web references are listed below.

1) "Bites by rabid dogs are the source of 35,000Â50,000 human rabies deaths each year globally". Much fewer in the US because dogs get immunized.

2) "Thirty-eight cases of human rabies occurred in the United States and its territories from 1960 to 1979. The major source of exposure to rabies has changed from indigenous dogs and cats in the 1940s and 1950s to wild carnivores and bats (11 of the 27 cases with known exposures); unusual exposures (3 cases) and exposures in a foreign country (7 cases) have also become more important. No exposure could be identified for 6 of the 38 cases."

Analysis: 11 of 27 known exposures were carnivores and bats - that is 40%. 40% of the 38 total is 15 cases in 19 years.

That is one case per year from exposure to bats and carnivors.

3) "32 laboratory-confirmed cases of human rabies diagnosed in the United States from 1980 to 1996. .....Of the 32 cases, 17 (53%) were associated with rabies virus variants found in insectivorous bats, 12 (38%) with variants found in domestic dogs outside the United States, 2 (6%) with variants found in indigenous domestic dogs, and 1 (3%) with a variant found in indigenous skunks. Among the 7 patients with a definite exposure history, 6 cases were attributable to dog bites received in foreign countries and 1 was attributable to a bat bite received in the United States."

Two conclusions can be reached.

a) 17 cases of rabies from bats in 16 years
b) you are almost as likely to get rabies from a dog bit as from a bat.

4) "A survey by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ("CDC") concluded that dogs bite nearly 2% of the U.S. population -- more than 4.7 million people annually. In the US from 1979 to 1996, 304 people in the US died from dog attacks, including 30 in California.
The average number of deaths per year was 17."

I don't mean to pick on dogs, although I do think we have far too many, but it does put bats into perspective. Each year in the US 1 person dies from a bat bite and 17 die from a dog bite. I see no reason to worry about bats.

By the way - there is not one single case of a death from a tarantula.

Too many times fear is based on misinformation.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no2/02-0083.htm
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9634432&dopt=Abstract

Even if they do get in (had one this past spring) it is easy to encourage them to leave. Turn off lights, open windows or doors where they are and sit down still. They will go for the opening and get out.

DO NOT BY ANY MEANS TRY TO PICK UP A DOWNED BAT as they play dead because they can't fly upwards. They may still be alive, once you pick it up they may bite to get free where they can then fly downward...and DO NOT swat at it with anything (that's when they become scared enough to defend themselves and may bite)

Best to just close off the room from the rest of the house (if you have cats or kids etc) open everything to the outdoors.

They are almost nightly cat entertainment at my place as they pluck the insects swarming by the screen while I sit in my chair to read (with lights on)!!! And then if anything escapes the bat and gets through the screen my cats catch it. So cats on one side, bats on the other....you'd think the insects wouldn't flock so!!

Whooh! hahaha trying to absorb all that bat info. I think to additionally put this kind of information into perspective look at things this way:

madtripper writes:
I don't mean to pick on dogs, although I do think we have far too many, but it does put bats into perspective. Each year in the US 1 person dies from a bat bite and 17 die from a dog bite. I see no reason to worry about bats.

Given the population density of bats to dogs, that makes dogs even more a danger. If there are 50 million dogs and one good sized bat cave can house upwards of 1.5 million bats that means that bats are MUCH less likely to bite you than a dog (given the above stats) with or without rabies. Bats are not generally interested in people anyway unlike dogs who have an interest in humans whether it be initially positive OR negative.

Barb in Ontario

madtripper, I watched a documentary on bats feeding on people and cows in africa. bats feed on alot of people in africa when they sleep. They had night vision cameras set up and caught it all on tape. I'm sure those were a different kind of bat and don't know how pevelant the drinking of human blood is by bats in the U.S. But it's a problem in Africa. There's a ton of websites on bat houses. I built one but haven't hung it outside yet.

I think that the image of the bloodletting bat is also not proportionate to the actual facts and television shows, even well meaning might help to blow this image out of proportion. There are some 1,000 +/- species of bats in the world and of those only 3 species are blood feeders and those are confined to a very, very, small area of the world. To my knowledge not one of these species exist in North America AT ALL. I don't know about Africa but there are blood feeding bats in central america but their feeding on human blood is more of an accident than an "intent" to feed from humans. Certainly if you lay down next to a scorpion den you will also get stung.

Barb in Ontario

I say the bat chow too - very well done - and on my new large screen TV.

I believe the pictures and work was done in S. & C. America, not Africa. The bat that was bitting the human was the Vampire Bat. Vampire bats do live in northern Mexico.

The same researchers also studdied many other kinds of bats and had no issues with handling them.

Barb - actually you could probably sleep right next to the scorpion nest and not get bitten at all. Not that it is a great idea.

Just when we had this all cleared up - we have another death from a rabid bat. Watched House tonight and yes you guessed it. The patient was wrongly diagnosed with a wide range of problems, only to die from rabies. Since she lived in a cardboard box that had bats in it, it was 'assumed' a bat bite was teh cause.

Personally I'm much more frightened of humans and do my best to keep them out of my house as well as my garden. I find the very idea of an unknown human living in my attic or garage terrifying. I would think the stats on how many humans kill humans each year would prove my fears justifiable.

kwoods and madtripper...LOL...

I think you are right about humans kwoods. ;o) and madtripper I think I will say "no thank you" to sleeping next to a scorpion nest...I'm generally NOT a lucky person.

From now on I'll say "no thank you" to cardboard boxes as well ;o)

Barb in southern Ontario, CANADA

I find it so interesting that people prejudge the wild creatures because of ideas from TV, movies, old wives tales, etc. People seem to love chipmunks, but chipmunks are just wild rodents. Are they any less dangerous than rats? Do they carry less fleas, etc, and bite when cornered less than rats do? This is the same with bats, I think. People have a preconceived idea about bats, due to old wives tales and movies. Are bats any less dangerous to us than mice, except that they can fly. Mice are always getting into our houses, a lot more often than bats. Mind you, other rodents don't carry as much rabies, but mice do carry other diseases. People are so afraid of mice and rats and yet try to attract chipmunks and birds, who also carry bugs and disease. It's all a matter of preconditioning.

I like all critters who come to my garden, as long as they leave the goldfish alone and don't come into the house.

I can speak for the scorpions and the bats.

I moved into a new house three years ago, built on an old prairie/oilfield. The scorpions that got into the house were unbelievable. We killed several a day for the first couple of years. Several stings on the feet before we learned to shake out our shoes. One night one got under my t-shirt while I was sleeping. I got 7 or 8 stings before I could get the shirt off. Not pleasant but not life threatening.

On the other hand, my bat encounter was more worrisome. I do not have bat houses but I had considered it. One morning I stepped barefoot on a downed bat in my kitchen. I put on leather gloves and captured it and had it tested for rabies. The vet that euthanized it thought I was crazy for not going ahead with shots pending the test results.

One rabid bat in 100 or 200 is population statistics. It's more like 1 rabid bat out of 10 when you consider just the ones involved in human encounters, because the healthy ones avoid contact. Agree the overall odds are small, but why increase the odds of encounter by attracting them to your backyard? Just my opinion.

With all the bats in Canada less than 1 percent have rabies. I think that bats are very benificial to the garden and more people should try attracting they to the garden. A single brown bat can eat about 500 insects in 1 hour. That is a lot of mosquitos gone. I wonder which is more of a concern WestNile or Rabies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bats Stuff

Hello everyone,

I just thought I would share that I got bit by a rabid raccoon and had to get the shots. It really was unpleasant.

I also wanted to share that I have a bat house in my back yard, and am desperately hoping for bats to move in. We have so many mosquitoes It is a serious health hazard. Literally swarms. It is just awful.

-Annette

Hope you were ok from the racoon bite. Was once reaching for a tool under a workbench in my garage and instead grabbed a racoon. We were both rather surprised and unhappy. Not sure if he bit or scratched me. Didn't go for treatment which I know was very stupid but turned out fine.

"We have so many mosquitoes It is a serious health hazard. Literally swarms. It is just awful."

Amphibians. We had a BAD mosquito problem in the last place I lived. Found tons of spring peeper (hyla crucifer) tadpoles at my job, introduced them to the ponds in back and that was it for the mosquito problem. Many times mosquito problems are from some kind of ecological imbalance.

My sister lives in MD (Cape St Claire), has a bad mosquito problem and put up a bunch of bat houses. Not sure if it helped much. The bats come through as they migrate but don't usually stay very long. I think you need a pretty big bat house to actually attract a colony.

I live in a small town. There is an old church by my house. This past summer my son and I were walking and noticed a large amout of bats coming out of the church in the evening. I've always seen them flying around, but never knew where they slept. I'm happy to see them. I know they are eating bugs, and I enjoy watching them fly around. The evening sky is full of activity between he bats and the swallows. There must be 1,000 birds and bats at any one time.

I put up a bat house on the side of my house up by the roof. The house is tight so no bats inside but on summer nights they can be seen wheeling around catching mosquitoes. We have had rabid raccoons and foxes, however.
I've had several go-rounds with Lyme disease and am a lot more worried about that and West Nile than rabies. As for bats biting people to suck blood - I thought that was mostly in Transylvania? Never heard of it happening here.

My first experience with a bat was one summer when I was about 10 years old. My mom, dad, and I were staying at my Grandmother's house in Ohio and sharing a big bedroom. My mom loved night air and had opened the windows, which had no screens. I awoke in the middle of the night to discover my parents jumping on the beds and flinging pillows at something. Yep, a bat. They did catch it and put it in a jar. I'm sure we must have let it go the next morning after everyone saw it and heard the story. Guess we were lucky, but at the time it was just a fun experience.

It reminds me of a statistic I saw, which puts all the nature shows about man-eating tigers and every other sort of wild threat into perspective - more people are killed worldwide by domestic dogs than all wild animal attacks combined. Why don't we hear more about that - there is a huge pet industry which caters to dog owners, no one is making money off of bats. So what do I do when I see a bat - run, just like when I happen on a snake or see any other potential threat. Wild animals should be observed at a bit of a distance - they are interesting to observe but we shouldn't try to befriend them or take their harmlessness for granted. I certainly wouldn't want any living in my house.

I think they are actually a lot more common in our neighborhoods than most people think, just like owls, without anyone trying to attract them in any way. If you have dead trees around some are probably nesting there. I'll never forget how as a kid myself and some buddies would always seek out dead trees on our way home through the woods and try to knock them over. Doing this one day, a bunch of disgruntled bats swooped down at us as the tree went over - looking like ugly little rats with wings. That was the end of flexing the muscles - we learned our lesson. I see them swooping over my yard frequently in summer - I retire to the porch and watch from there. I think all these shows with some zealot catching snakes and grabbing alligators etc do a disservice to the public. Even if you aren't a coward like me I think the best policy is to leave wild animals alone - they probably all view direct contact negatively. Give most things their space and there are usually no problems.

Growing up in a family of 10, Mom and Dad, 5 girls and 3 boys,we lived in house where the girls bedroom were on the third floor (we didn't call it the attic, it had four bedrooms).Our front porch which attracted bats. When they started dive bombing us, we knew it was time to GO IN! Sometimes we couldn't get in before a bat beat us to it. I smile fondly as i remember my father running around (especially on the third floor) with his bat net(looked like a broom handle with a pool table pocket attached) as 5 girls ran around screaming "they're gonna get in my hair!". We always let them fly away. At our summer home on a pond, we girls were allowed to stay "on the big rock" with other teenagers until just before it got dark. We didn't have watches, we had BATS. We knew when it was time to go home. Now, in my sixties, I live on small island ,only 300 homes, but 700 acres. When I sit on the deck with my husband at dusk, here come the bats! Once, when I said to him"honey, time to come in, they're starting to dive bomb and "THEY'LL GET IN YOUR HAIR!", he laughed and said"Bats don't do that". I said O.K., got the camera, and within 5 minutes, a bat swooped up under the visor of his baseball cap, knocked off the hat, and knocked him backwards off his chair. I've got it on film somewhere. I won't repeat his words, but now he believes me when I say it's time to come in. I am still more afraid of them getting in my hair than the house(hasn't happened yet). I KNOw how to get them out of the house.. BUT, MY HAIR??????I still shudder. Peace.

Wow, this post has been going on for over a year. Well, just to put my two cents in...I can attest that the story about the girl in Greenwich is true, I was a nurse in the hospital in which she died. Infact, the entire new childrens hospital at Westchester Medical Center was named after her. If you ever see something like this, you will not care what the statistics are. I have many bats in my yard and when they come out in the evening (and start diving over my pool) I go in the house!

So how in heaven's name does it come about that I have a bat in my basement? Yes, BASEMENT. DH found it last night. Tried to chase it out the door (windows don't open) but then lost it somewhere. Was afraid to leave the door open all night, for obvious reasons, so unless the bat figured out how to leave the way he came in he's still there.

Oy. I like bats and all, but I have very clear ideas about the separation of bat-space and me-space. And I REALLY don't want to open the linen closet in the bathroom (site of a former clothes chute to the basement) and have a bat fly in my face.

Can it have come down the chimney? We had a wood stove put in last fall, so there's a steel liner in there and a cap on top. The only other thing I can think of is the hole where the dryer vent or the hose line goes out.

Now what? Other than buying a net for bat-catching, what the heck do I do?

Help?

housenewbie, #1 visit www.batcon.org and search their suggestions. #2 go outside and check all venting for openings. #3 follow all suggestions for blocking those areas given by the site.

we once had a bat get in our ductwork, via the furnace, via the exhaust on the roof.

Here is a link that might be useful: it only takes a half inch!

Well, DH evicted the bat yesterday PM. Found him asleep or injured on the floor in front of the door. Guess I'll have to go up on the roof one of these days and see what's what. Seems weird that he would have climbed all the way from the roof to the basement thru the chimney, tho. That's a long way to go.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've bookmarked that website in case of future such issues.

I think bats are pretty cool, too. I'm another one who likes to sit outdoors at dusk and marvel at the aeonautics they demonstrate. I remember sitting at my sewing machine one afternoon and glancing at the window sill. There was a small, furry bat contentedly snoozing away in a warm, protected spot. I finished my sewing.

As the sun was setting I shooed him into a wide-mouthed maynnaise jar and released him outdoors.

Easy, no harm done to either of us. (do you think I released a rabid animal back into the wild?! spare me...)

Could anyone tell me of Bats activity during the months of March & April, in Southern Ontario? Also if the Bats in Southern Ontario are at all known for biting people?

I am currently working on a civil case involving these allegations, and looking to make myself knowledgable on this topic for cross examination. Please send your responses to osyd@hotmail.com

osyd, bats aren't known for biting people. It's a rare occurance, and I wouldn't worry about it. Bats fly around my back yard all of the time, and I've never had a problem. If a bat gets in your house, then the bat may bite to defend itself. If they are outside, they will leave you alone.

If you get a bat in the house in the day time, call animal control, at 911. They will get it and have it tested.

It's time to think of screens.
Also, you can build or buy a 'bat excluder'to put in an attic window.

There have been several families needing shots, in Stamford too.

I was bit in the head two years ago. It happened outside.
I have been through the full rabies treatment which includes a trip to the ER and consecutive trips to an infectious disease specialist - not a painless process. I hope this dispells the myth that bats do not attack. They do if they are rabid, both indoors (and usually these are the rabid variety because they confused and have gotten off track) and outdoors.

I am surprised to see this thread still going on but the information in it is very good. Here in southern Ontario we have no discernable bat activity until summer and then they are summer residents in the woods behind and in front of, all our houses. So for me, putting up a bat house isn't really "inviting them" per se, just giving them a place to roost since they live in our woods already. We see a little bat activity in June but heavy activity in July, August and September. We have a firepit in our woods and just around the time the kids want to get the fire going, the bats are also coming out so it's fun to watch they gliding and swooping just overhead.

Barb/knottyceltic
southern Ontario, CANADA

A bat in the cellar, sounds unhealthy. It may have fallen down, behind the walls, and then, didn't have the energy, to get out. Bats have a sleepy form of rabies. They let go their grip.
I'm less of a fan, since my encounter.
They belong outside.

Last night I had a interesting thing happen to me. I had just done my first Angelic connection with meditation, candles and certain harmonic rituals when I came upstairs and was relaxing. My husband was asleep upstairs . All of the sudden, what was to me a bird came flying past my head. It was small, 4 inches or so. It flew over me a few more times and then realized that it was a bat! I got my phone and started videotaping my cat going after . was encouraging my cat to kill .. inbetween my cats food and water dishes for several minutes as my cat looked puzzled. All of the sudden it just took off!!! It flew straight up in the air. Into the kitchen ( filming and screaming!). It landed on window sill, tucked it's wings (hung out). Then proceeded around. Finally landing on the kitchen mat by the back door. Paying (again). MY cat Boots was stumped this behavior left the room. started feeling like there was more to this than meets the eye. went and googled "a bat in your house" and to my surprise ***Bats Symbols of transition, initiation and the start of a new beginning. They Symbolize Death and rebirth. Death in the sense of letting go of the old and bringing in the new! In the Chinese culture bats are Symbols of Good luck. Chinese word for bat is " pronounced the same as the word for "Good Fortune" Upon reading all of this just horrible. I had covered the bat with and put a heavy stone pizza plate over the bowl so that the bat could not escape. Now I put my cat, got my phone/camera ready and uncovered the plate and bowl. He was just laying there. Lifeless. wwent to find a proper box so that I could give him a proper burial in the morning, got latex gloves on and went to move him he lifted his head!!! I jumped back !! So now I knew that once again, he wasn't ! turned off all of the lights in the house and got within a few inches of his face and just talked to him for a bit. I told him that I hoped that he would be alright and that had I known of the Symbolism, that I would have been appreciative of his presence. He truly looked sweet and cute. He had cute little itty bitty hands and without wings was only an inch wide and not much longer. He was furry like a teddy bear. left a note for my husband asking him NOT kill the bat and not to let our cat in. When he got up to around 4 bat had moved a different part of the kitchen /, and my husband picked him up and placed him on our shelf on our bbq an hour or so later when the paper came the bat was gone. Okay, so there you have it! My experience was of a Spiritual one * in my opinion * we live on the Ocean Washington State. Have a newer home with no attic, have 2 fireplaces that have closed glass doors and have never seen a bat! My conclusion is that there are good forces out there and that I got visited by one .