Make sure all your pets have up-to-date rabies vaccines and keep your family and pets away from bats. Bats are nocturnal, which means they are more active at night and sleep through most of the day.
Knowing how the species behaves is the best way to avoid most accidental contact. If you do happen to find a bat sleeping in your home or flying around your house, then contact a wildlife expert immediately for safe removal. Bats are magnificent creatures, and like any other wild animal, and they deserve your respect.
Do not put yourself or your family at unnecessary risk by trying to get a bat out of your home yourself. Contact our Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control Milwaukee team for help to keep you, your family, and the wildlife safe.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Marcus combines the academic training M. Wildlife Biology, UW Madison with the field training and skills to be successful in resolving wildlife conflict for home and business owners. Connect with the author via: LinkedIn.
Although rare, exposures can also occur from contact between infected saliva or nervous tissues and open wounds or the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, or mouth. The principal source of rabies exposure from bats is through careless handling. According CDC, people cannot get rabies just from seeing a bat in an attic, in a cave, or at a distance.
In addition, people cannot get rabies from having contact with bat guano feces , blood, or urine, or from touching a bat on its fur even though bats should never be handled! The rabies virus has never been isolated from bat blood, urine or feces, and there is no evidence of air-borne transmission in buildings. Two cases of aerosol transmission were reported in the s in Texas caves that support very unusual environments. However, no similar cases have occurred since, despite the fact that many thousands of people explore bat caves each year.
No such transmission has occurred outside or in buildings. Bats do not purposefully salivate or sneeze on people Like all mammals, bats produce saliva to moisten their food and keep their mouths comfortable, however, they do not produce enough saliva to drip on people while in flight or roosting.
And, like people and all other mammals, a bat may occasionally sneeze. All mammals can succumb to respiratory problems and allergies that may produce an occasionally sneeze. However, just like we would have a hard time running while also sneezing, a bat would not be capable of flying over people while also sneezing. Bats rarely transmit rabies to other kinds of wildlife and domestic pets. There is no evidence that rabies from bats has ever triggered an outbreak in other animals.
If it's possible to catch the bat without increasing your risk of exposure, do so, according to the Centers for Disease C ontrol CDC. A scientist can then test the animal for rabies after killing it, so you know for sure whether or not you should consider rabies treatment. There is disagreement, however, over which situations you should be concerned about when it comes to catching rabies from a bat. The CDC suggests medical treatment any time you are exposed to a bat , whether or not you can recall being bitten.
However, Merlin Tuttle, one of the world's leading bat conservationists, writes that the risk of humans getting rabies from a bat is highly exaggerated. For one thing, only one to three confirmed cases of rabies are reported in the U.
Teach children never to handle unfamiliar animals, wild or domestic, even if they appear friendly. Wash any wound from an animal thoroughly with soap and water and seek medical attention immediately. Have all dead, sick, or easily captured bats tested for rabies if exposure to people or pets occurs.
Prevent bats from entering living quarters or occupied spaces in homes, churches, schools, and other similar areas where they might contact people and pets.
Rabies in humans is rare in the United States. There are usually only one or two human cases per year. But the most common source of human rabies in the United States is from bats. For example, among the 19 naturally acquired cases of rabies in humans in the United States from , 17 were associated with bats.
Among these, 14 patients had known encounters with bats. Four people awoke because a bat landed on them and one person awoke because a bat bit him. In these cases, the bat was inside the home. One person was reportedly bitten by a bat from outdoors while he was exiting from his residence.
Six people had a history of handling a bat while removing it from their home.
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