thetapetumlucidum:

why-animals-do-the-thing:

petcareawareness:

Now that tomorrow is Halloween, here’s a spooky psa: if you find a bat inside your house, NEVER attempt to catch it barehanded! Bats are one of the most common carriers of rabies and they don’t need to bite you or your pets to transmit it–just by breathing in their saliva (or getting some in your mouth, nose or eyes) or coming into contact with other potential vectors like blood, urine and faeces is often enough to pose a risk. 

Call the relevant authorities to help you transport it away from your home, and make sure that your pets haven’t had the chance to paw at it. If you live in an area where bats are common and your pets are the types to try and chew on other living beings that cross their way, please remember to keep them inside during dusk and dawn (when bats are leaving and returning from their roosts). Investing in netting is also a good idea. Remember to scour your property to shoo away any bats that might have landed there. 

Stay safe and happy Halloween!

– mod Nick

An important thing related to this: there have been a number of people who tried to shoo bats out of their house and came into contact with them without realizing it, and because they were unaware, did not seek treatment for and eventually died of rabies. You can get scratched by a bat without really feeling it, and if they’ve groomed recently, there’s a risk of exposure from their saliva on their claws. 

Bats that end up inside houses are more likely to be rabid than ones you’d see out at night - staying in populated and/or bright areas is definitely abnormal behavior for a bat and is often an indicator that it’s sick. Don’t try to get rid of bats yourself, call the professionals, and get medical treatment if there’s any sort of risk that you came into any physical contact with one. 

While I agree with the sentiment above wholeheartedly, I do want to clarify that contact with the blood, urine, or feces of an infected animal does NOT constitute an exposure and does NOT require treatment. Non-bite exposures, like inhalation of the virus are incredibly rare unless you’re exposed to the brain matter of an infected individual.

Additionally, the CDC suggests that you consider prophylactic rabies vaccines if you discover a bat in a room where you were sleeping or for some reason might not have noticed a bite has occurred.

Having been bitten myself, it was relatively painless and there were no obvious punctures once the bleeding stopped (which took all of sixty seconds) - don’t fuck around with rabies.

If you find a bat in your home, call a professional, then call your doctor or local heath department.

All that being said, bats are not vicious bloodsuckers and are hugely beneficial to our environment. They are also dying off in huge numbers across most of the US, so if you see a bat outside of your home please leave them be!

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