Many people are terrified of bats. Their poor image stems for the fact that they are nocturnal; waking and emerging at night to forage. Night and darkness have long been associated with evil and death. Humans have been and still are superstitious about animals that roam at night. Owls, cats, snakes and bats have all therefore had negative images.

Echolocation is how bats find their food. Contrary to popular misconceptions, bats are not blind. If they appear to be aiming for your head, they are likely after an insect above you.

All mammals can contract rabies; however, even less than one half of one percent of bats do. They are very gentle and shy creatures and bite only in self-defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them. More people die annually from contact with household pets than die from bats in all recorded history.

There are 1,100 kinds of bats that account for almost a quarter of all mammal species. They are the only true flying mammals. They are unique in the fact that they have been placed in an order all their own; Chiroptera, meaning hand wing, as their wings are built like an elongated human hand. They are in the grand order of Archonta, which are monkeys and lemurs. They have a life span of 18 to 20 years. Their intelligence is just below that of a chimpanzee.

They normally have one pup per year, but sometimes two. As mothers return from feeding, each pup recognizes its mother’s voice, rears up, and calls to aid in its location. Final identification is aided by unique scents. Bats have 23 known communications; warning calls, passive mating song, herding buzz, alarm call and escape call to name a few. Seventy percent of them eat insects. One bat can eat between 500 and 1,200 insects in an hour and will consume 3,000 to 6,000 in a night. It’s like a 150-pound person eating 400 quarter-pounders or 150 pounds of French fries or roughly five large pizzas in one night.

Insect eating bats eat billions of tons of insects each summer. They protect our crops and keep costs down on food.

Only three kinds of bats are vampires. They are about the size of a package of M&Ms. Their meals consist of about one teaspoon from animals other than humans. The remaining 1,097 species eat insects, fruit, nectar and pollen. A few eat frogs and fish. Fruit bats bring us over 450 commercial products and 80 medicines through pollination and seed dispersal. Over 95 percent of the rainforests re-growth is due to seeds spread by fruit bats.

Common bats found in Mississippi are big brown bats, siminole bats, evening bats, eastern pipistrelle bats and Brasilian or Mexician free tailed bats.

My colony has Mexician free tails. They are reddish to dark brown in color and have broad black forward pointing ears and wrinkled noses. Their faces resemble that of a tiny dog. Their tails extend more than 1/3 of their tail membranes. They weigh 0.4 to 0.5 ounces. Wings are long and narrow with a wingspan of 12 to 14 inches. These little bats are the fastest and highest fliers in the bat world. They can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour and fly heights up to 10,000 feet. They will travel as far as 30 miles away from their roost in search of food and have no problems finding their way home. If you have outside lights, they will attract insects, then they will likely eat you bugs instead of someone else’s.

Here are a few considerations about the position and construction of a bat house. Bats hate drafts. Chalk all seams, especially around the roof. Houses should be placed at least 15 feet off the ground. Houses mounted on poles or structures generally occupy faster than those mounted on trees. Trees are vulnerable to predators. Houses in this area have a water source, which is important. Houses should be facing southeast and stained or painted a light color. I have not, but will put a tin or reflective roof on my next house, because the summers are so hot here.

Bats are exceptionally vulnerable to extinction, in part because they are the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size. Losses are occurring at an alarming rate worldwide. Loss of bats increase demand for chemical pesticides and can jeopardize whole ecosystems of other animals and plant species and harm human economies.

For more information, contact Bat World or Bat Conservation International, INC. Bat houses, plans are easily found online.

Kay Browning is a Master Gardener.