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BLACKSBURG — Let’s face it. Bats — the notorious flying mammals — have gotten a bum rap.
Thanks to the story of Dracula, a lot of us think that each bat is a stalking, ruthless villain out to bite us on the neck. We also think that the average bat carries rabies.
And everyone’s heard from some great-aunt or uncle about the absolutely horrifying experience the time the bat flew into the attic, found its way down to the kitchen and swooped dangerously close to the fresh apple cobbler.
But bats really don’t fit any of these traditional stereotypes. If they did, why then, would anyone want to put up a “bat house” in his back yard?
Pete Bromley, Virginia Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist, says cultivating local bats by providing them with a bat house helps get rid of the real blood suckers — the mosquitoes.
“A bat might eat up 2,000 mosquitoes every night,” Mr. Bromley said. “If you have six or seven bats in your bat house, that’s more than 10,000 mosquitoes.”
Humans aren’t even on the bat menu, Mr. Bromley added — in North America they eat bugs, not blood — and they rarely contract rabies. Less than one-half of one percent get the fatal disease.
“The important thing to remember is that even when rabid, bats rarely become aggressive,” Mr. Bromley said. “Like other animals who contract rabies, they quickly die.”
Bat houses, which look much like bird houses except they’re bigger and they have a slot-like entry in the bottom rather than a hole in the front, are already quite popular in Europe, Mr. Bromley said. They are gaining popularity in the United States.
Europeans often post the wooden structures on all four cardinal sides of a tree.
Not only do the bats take care of back-yard mqsquitoes and other insects, but they are unique and fun animals to watch, Mr. Bromley said.
“They’re great flyers, so they have aesthetic appeal,” he said. “Plus it’s fun to have guests look at your bat house and say ‘there’s no hole in the front.’ Then you can say ‘that’s a bat house,’ and have a lot of fun talking about it around your place.”
If you’re interested in putting up a bat house on your property, the
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