A Real Halloween Bat Tale

Still frame from The Creature Show on bats - see below

As Michele Byers reminds us, those bats that are popular as Halloween decorations, are in reality very misunderstood. They won't suck your blood, fly into your hair or spread disease. Those are just a few common myths.

Bat Bits

Bats eat thousands of insects a night and reducing our need for chemical insecticides. Just one nursing female can eat more than her weight in bugs (up to 4,500 insects) in a night.

There are no vampire bats in New Jersey or anywhere else in the United States.

Bats rarely attack unless disturbed and are actually shy and will move away if you approachi their roosting area.

Just like raccoons, squirrels and other mammals, they can carry rabies BUT less than one percent of bats carry rabies.

White-Nose Syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus, has entered their NJ winter hibernation caves (hibernacula). In New Jersey, we’ve lost 98 percent of our cave-hibernating bats, according to the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

This new episode of The Creature Show, a series focusing on the state’s rare and endangered species, features NJ bats and researchers including the northern long-eared bat, a newly-listed federally threatened species.