Report sick, injured, or dead bats online. If you have a nuisance bat or colony that you need removed or excluded, please contact a Wildlife Control Operator in your area. If you have touched a bat or suspect exposure, contact your local Department of Health immediately. Remember - a small percentage of bats can carry rabies. Most bat species have difficult time taking to flight from the ground. If the bat must be moved, use thick gloves and a shovel or box to gently pick it up and move it to a protected and elevated location, like a tree.

Leave it in place unless advised to move it. These threats include a devastating disease called white-nose syndrome, wind energy, habitat loss, and climate change. Less than one bat in 20,000 has rabies, and no Washington bats feed on blood.Īcross the United States, bats face many threats that put them at severe risk of population decline. If a flying bat comes close to your head, it's probably because it is hunting insects that have been attracted by your body heat. When night falls, bats take over: a nursing female little brown bat ( Myotis lucifugus) may consume her body weight in insects each night during the summer.Ĭontrary to some widely held views, bats are not blind and do not become entangled in peoples' hair. As predators of night-flying insects (including mosquitoes!), bats play a role in preserving the natural balance of your property or neighborhood.Īlthough swallows and other bird species consume large numbers of flying insects, they generally feed only in daylight. Monofilament recovery and recycling programīats are highly beneficial to people, and the advantages of having them around far outweigh any problems you might have with them.

Big brown bats hibernate