Date Posted: June 25, 2015
Category: Bats, Big Blue Bug, Summer Pests
Let's answer this question with another question: "Are cars dangerous?" Some would say no, and others would say that 32,675 people died in a motor vehicle accident in 2014. Both would be correct. You can't simply say that cars are dangerous. If you want to protect yourself from being hurt in a car accident, you need to know how and why cars can be dangerous. The same can be said of bats. If you want to know how to protect yourself from bats, you need to understand how this animal can threaten you and your children.
Do bats bite?
Yes. They can bite. But let's be honest. You can stand in a room full of bats and not get bitten. I've actually done it. Bats are not inclined to bite humans because they don't eat humans or suck their blood. Bats eat insects. Lots of them. These two reasons are what make bats so dangerous. Let's look at them closely.
I'm not an insect, why would a bat bite me?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bats are the most common source of human rabies in the United States. Though this creature prefers to eat insects, it will bite humans, especially if it is sick. This is what you need to know about bat bites.
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Most cases of bat bites happen in or around a home. One person was bitten while exiting his residence.
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In some cases where people have died from rabies, they knew they had been bitten by a bat, but didn't go to the hospital.
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Some cases reported, young children did not fully awake when bitten.
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6 cases of rabies were from people who had handled bats while removing them from their homes.
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One person was bitten while releasing a bat back into the wild after finding it on the floor inside a building.
If bats had been removed from the homes of these victims, and if they had known the dangers of rabies, these rabies cases could have been avoided.
Aren't bats great to have around? They eat insects.
It is true. If you have a family of bats living in your attic or behind your chimney, you're going to have fewer mosquitoes around your home. That is definitely a positive. But what are you trading for mosquito protection? When bats live inside your home they bring biting insects in with them. You may have fewer mosquitoes outside, but you'll have more mites, lice, ticks, fleas and bat bugs inside.
If you have bats, call the Rhode Island wildlife extraction specialists at Big Blue Bug for professional bat control. If you're worried about your mosquito problem increasing, follow up with a mosquito treatment. You don't have to live with bats just to get rid of mosquitoes. Big Blue Bug can help you control both.
