Did you know that bats are the world’s only known flying mammal?
You may not have much experience with bats, but they’re much more common than you would imagine.
There are 1,100 species of bats in the world, 40 of which exist in the United States alone.
They’re small in physical size, but have a huge print on the world - bats make up one quarter of the world’s mammals!
In today’s post, we will cover some fascinating facts about bats that you may not have known before.
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#1- Hungry, Fast Bats
Despite having a relatively small body size, bats can be hungry, voracious eaters. They like to eat little insects, and some have been observed to eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single hour!
In other words, bats can eat 20 insects per minute or one per every 3 seconds!
In order to eat this many insects so quickly, bats have to be very fast. Some bats can reach flying speeds of up to 60 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour.
#2- Guano
Bat droppings, otherwise known as guano, used to be a huge industry. For example, guano used to be Texas’s biggest mineral export before oil!
#3- Intense Hunters & Vampires
While most bats prefer to eat small insects and are of little threat to other creatures, some species of bats drink blood to survive and have scary hunting habits.
For example, pallid bats appear to be immune to scorpion stings, and so like to attack and eat scorpions!
In fact, during the right season up to 70% of a Pallid bat’s diet can be scorpions!
Another scary species of bat is the common vampire bat. These vampire bats like to drink the blood of mammals in order to survive, and are likely some of the inspirations of modern-day vampire representations.
In the middle of the night when the victims are asleep (typically cattle, but they will drink from humans too) the bats will fly and land near the mammal.
They will then sneak up on the creature quietly, and then with its natural heat sensors find where the most blood is flowing.
These bats don’t have many teeth, but the small and few teeth they do have are razor sharp.
A small incision is made and blood is drunk out of the animal without the creature even aware of what is happening!
The bats don’t drink enough blood to kill the mammal, but complications such as disease & infection can arise out of these bites.
In some rare instances, this can even happen to humans!
Bat Infestation
Bats can be common pests, and go undetected for a long period of time because they are typically nocturnal, which means they are asleep during the day and awake at night.
Bats can sometimes find or make small holes in your attic or rooftop in order to create a little cave for themselves to survive in.
While bats themselves are not inherently dangerous, they can spread deadly diseases and also cause severe damages to your home from their droppings and existence.
If you think that you have a wildlife or pest infestation of any kind, be sure to call the experts so the problem is handled before it gets any worse.
Give us a call at 855-WILDLIFE or visit www.wildlifexteam.com for more information.
Thanks & have a great day!
-Wildlife x Team International