Raintree Place Neighborhood Association

We’ve all heard the frightening stories about bats: bats get in our hair, all bats have rabies, bats will drink your blood, just to name a few.

Read on for some bat facts...

The only flying mammal - Yep, that’s right, bats are the only mammals that fly. Flying squirrels glide.

• Because bats can fly they are placed in their own order- Chiroptera. Chiroptera is a Greek word, in English it means hand-wing. The wing of a bat is almost the same as your hand, but a bat’s fingers are elongated and they have skin that attaches to the fingers to allow them to fly.

How many bats are there anyway? There are over 900 different kinds of bats in the world, most are found in the tropics.

• A bat fits into one of two categories, it is either a MegaChiroptera or a MicroChiroptera.
• Big Bats (MegaChiroptera) are found in tropical rainforests (places like Australia and Africa). These bats are also called flying foxes because they look like foxes. They either eat fruit or drink nectar from flowers, and sometimes look for food during the day instead of at night.
• Small Bats (MicroChiroptera) are found all over the world, including here in the U.S. They eat mostly insects, although some eat fruit. These bats use echolocation, or radar, to find their food.

How big is big?
The biggest bat in the world is, of course, a Mega Bat. Its common name is the gigantic flying fox, found in Asia. It weighs over 2 pounds and has a wingspan of about 6 feet (that’s wider than we are tall!). This bat eats only fruit, and eats lots!

How small is small?
The smallest bat is the hog-nosed bat (or the bumblebee bat). It is found in Thailand and weighs about 2 grams (that’s how much a dime weighs). It has a 6 inch wingspan.

Bats eat what?
• Most bats in the United states eat insects. As a matter of fact, one little brown bat can eat more than 600 mosquitoes in a single hour. Bats eat half their body's weight a night.
• In other parts of the world bats eat strange things indeed. Some bats only eat fish, some bats eat other bats, some bats eat spiders.

Have you heard the latest?
You have no doubt heard many myths about bats, but here’s the truth.
• Bats are not blind. Some bats actually have good eyesight.
• Bats do not make nests in your hair. Bats roost, they do not build nests.
• Bats will not attack people, they are very small and gentle animals. Remember, we are very large to a bat and they are afraid of us.
• All bats do not have rabies. However, like any other mammal bats can get rabies. Always make sure not to pick up or try to play with any wild animal. They are meant to be wild and left alone.

You may want to help bats
Wow! That’s great, anyone that will help bats deserves a medal, there are still so many people out there that dislike bats and even want to hurt them.
• There are many ways we can help bat populations. First, tell people about bats. Let them know not to be afraid and not to hurt them. Teach people all you know about bats.
• We can help save bat habitat, or places where bats live. Bats like to live in marsh lands were there are many dead trees for them to roost in. Try to preserve our marshes by joining conservation organizations like the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, The Florida Bat Center or the Organization for Bat Conservation.
• A bat house in your backyard gives bats a place to live. The new OBC houses simulate the loose and peeling bark of dead trees. It’s also a lot of fun to watch “your” bats come out to feed every night. Remember one bat eats over 600 mosquitoes in an hour, so you’ll have a natural pest control company in your backyard.

With the advent of mosquito-borne West Nile virus, perhaps bats will gain new respect. Spraying for mosquitoes is at best only a temporary measure because insects quickly develop immunity to chemical controls. A more permanent solution is bats, which are mosquito-eating machines. One brown bat can consume 1,200 mosquitoes in an hour.

Bat Houses and Bat's role in controlling mosquito populations.