Since spooky season officially kicks off today, we’re looking at 1 of the most iconic emblems of Halloween: bats. To get the real scoop on these winged critters , we spoke with Kendrick Weeks, Western Wildlife Diversity Program Supervisor with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission . Here’s what we learned.
The basics of WNC bats
- There are at least 13 species in WNC.
- All of these are insectivores, meaning they eat insects for sustenance. No human blood suckers, here — those types live in Central America.
- Their function is pest control, and they save the corn industry in NC over $1 billion annually in pest control.
- Bats are nocturnal creatures that sleep during the day and are most active at night.
- Most human rabies cases are linked to bats because most people don’t realize when they’ve been bitten (or they downplay it).
Little brown bats, or pups. I Photo by Katherine Caldwell
Fun bat facts
- In NC, there’s a moratorium on evicting colonies of bats from your home from May 1-July 31.
- The term “blind as a bat” is a misnomer. They are not actually blind, but because they are active at night, they use their other senses more, making it seem as though their vision is poor or nonexistent.
- Bats breed in the fall and tend to hibernate during the winter.
- Females give birth to an average of 1 or 2 babies a year (aka pups) in the spring.
- In the wild, bats can live to be 30 years old. In captivity, they tend to live for 7-10 years.
- There’s no research that shows these wild animals form bonds with people, so the chances of making friends with a bat are sadly pretty slim.
Want to create a bat-friendly home without inviting them inside?
- Keep a well-maintained home + inspect points of entry regularly.
- Install a bat box
, an artificial roost that offers bats a safe environment while protecting your yard from pests.