Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pacbell!att!mtunx!whuts!mhuxh!mhuxu!mhuxt!mhuxi!mhuhk!mhuxo!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!erl
From: erl@sfsup.UUCP (E.Lund)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Bug zappers
Message-ID: <3408@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jun 88 14:59:55 GMT
References: <1737@homxb.UUCP> <1020@ih1ap.ATT.COM> <3131@ut-emx.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA
Lines: 26

> I'm not sure about this one. Bats are also notorious carriers of rabies. It'd
> just take one rabid bat, then next would be the neigborhood pets, and so on.
> No way, Jose...

Actually, bats are infrequent carriers of rabies. Until about 20 years ago
it was believed that the only species of bat that carried rabies at all
was the South American Vampire. It has since been discovered that other
species also carry rabies, but very infrequently.  A rabid bat,
furthermore, is fairly easy to spot, since it does not behave in
anything like batlike fashion. It is likely to be aggressive and fly in
the daytime among other things. This doesn't mean that there is no
danger from bats, but that the danger is probably somewhat less than
many people think. Also, if your neighborhood pets have not been
vaccinated, which is the only way they would be susceptible, they
probably pose more threat to you and your family than the bats.

Finally, I could be wrong, but it seems unlikely that  you are going to
draw bats from great distances to your bat house.  It is much more
likely that existing neighborhood bats will move into your yard.  Since
they would have been around anyway (in attics and hollow trees and
things), the danger of rabies has not significantly increased.

I don't claim that no one ever has problems with rabies from bats, but you
probably have a better chance of getting encephalitis or malaria from a
mosquito than rabies from a bat.

				Eric