You have heard of the bats at our school and you may have been told to stay away at the risk of getting bit or harmed by said bats, but what you may not have known is that we have had bat problems in the past and I am not talking about just the bats that were on our schools roof.

In March of 2017, our principal, Mr. Hughes, said in the article Bat Bonanza from LC Howler, “There have been bats before, there were bats last year, and we had a couple of incidents before I came to work at Langham almost 5 years ago.”

Most bats will stay and hibernate in their nest or their roost and most roosts are maternity colonies that mainly consists of pregnant female bats. Bats need different roosting conditions depending on the time of year so they will move around. Actually like humans and their homes; bats will look for a roost that fits their preferences. Some bats prefer caves or under bridges like in Austin, it just happens that these bats like high school roofs. If a bat has a roost in your home they will return to the same spot year after year. In winter, bats use hibernation roosts.

Contrary to popular belief, healthy bats do not attack humans unprovoked, most attacks happen if a bat is threatened. Fear of bats is because you do not know enough about them. The echolocation bats use is to find tiny insects, those insects are attracted to us by heat and smell when we are out at night. Bats are not normally aggressive and will avoid contact with humans, or try to as much as possible.

So you should not try to pick up a bat even if it is “sooo cool!” The rabies virus is transmitted via a bite or scratch from an infected animal. You could also get rabies from its saliva coming into contact with your eyes, mouth or nose. Bats are wild animals not prized pets, so if you see a bat please tell an administrator or a teacher immediately.