Xref: utzoo rec.gardens:911 sci.bio:1238 sci.misc:1728 misc.consumers.house:2482
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!bbn!rochester!udel!rsmith
From: rsmith@udel.EDU (R Timothy Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens,sci.bio,sci.misc,misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Bug zappers
Summary: In defense of bats ...
Keywords: bats, rabies
Message-ID: <2944@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 9 Jun 88 07:09:34 GMT
References: <1737@homxb.UUCP> <1020@ih1ap.ATT.COM> <3131@ut-emx.UUCP>
Reply-To: rsmith@udel.EDU (R Timothy Smith)
Followup-To: rec.gardens
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 22

In article <3131@ut-emx.UUCP> osmigo@emx.UUCP (Ron Morgan) writes:
>[deleted suggestion about "bat houses" to house bats which eat lots of bugs]
>
>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...

I'll take strong issue with that!  Yes, bats can contract rabies; so
can people.  Neither are "carriers" in the sense of walking around
infecting others without being quickly affected themselves.  The rabid
nature of bats may be "notorious", but it is also undeserved.  (They're
also "notorious" for flying into people's hair, but that's a crock too).
I don't have my research sources here with me to quote from but if you 
want the details let me know and I'll get back to you.  (That was not 
to imply it's my research, just stuff I've collected in defense of bats 
from being a spelunker for the past 20 years.)

The bottom line is, bats eat a mess of insects, are beneficial, and not
anymore likely to give you rabies than your next door neighbor.

Build a bat house  --  bats need friends!