Are Bats Actually Harmful?

With Halloween upon us, it might feel festive or spooky to spot a bat in the
wild. But you may begin to wonder to yourself, are they actually harmful? The short
and simple answer is, potentially. A bat removal service is always the safest way to
handle a pesky bat encounter especially if they are found indoors. However, you can
rest assured that bats rarely attack and if they do they are even less likely to be
rabid. In fact there have only been 44 deaths due to rabies in the last 55 years in the
United States. Of those 44 deaths only 1 was from a rabid bat!
Over 50% of the bat species are actually considered to be endangered. This is
likely due to the destruction of their natural habitat – the cave. Bats are actually very
helpful to our ecosystem as they control the inspect population. In fact, bats can
consume over 1,000 insects in just one hours time, including mosquitos! A larger
issue you will want to be aware of is that bats can carry airborne diseases that are
much more common than rabies. Bats carry a soil fungus called Histoplasma, which
is actually a lung infection that often is mistaken for other diseases, so it often goes
poorly treated. This disease is most commonly harmful when there is a colony of
bats.
Bat sightings are most likely in the fall – how festive! If you notice several bat
encounters near the end of summer there is likely a colony nearby or being
established. If this is the case you will want to contact a bat removal service right
away to have them properly relocated. As mentioned early bats are very helpful to
our environment so we want to preserve their species, but in a safe manner for both
the bats and humans alike.