Rabid bats in Scottsdale? (Phoenix, Mesa: house, scorpions, school)

[AZ_singlemother]

Okay, I received a note from my daughter's school - one child in her school was exposed and had to get rabies shots. I am new to this news. Know about the roaches and scorpions and rattlers. But bats?

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/0503sr-bats0504ON.html[/url]

[sheena]

Originally Posted by AZ_singlemother

Okay, I received a note from my daughter's school - one child in her school was exposed and had to get rabies shots. I am new to this news. Know about the roaches and scorpions and rattlers. But bats?

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/0503sr-bats0504ON.html[/url]

We had a lot of bats flying around the Superstition Springs area E Mesa/Gilbert back in 2000-2002. You could see them all flying around at night when you look up at the light. I hadn't noticed them there now in a few years. You see them here an there. How did the child get exposed to the bat?

[AZ_singlemother]

The bats have been found in Scottsdale. There was one at Laguna Elementary, which was confirmed had rabies according to the school's letter. The kid touched it - kids will play with anything. These bats are sick and will be around in daylight. I had to immediately educate my kids and myself.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by AZ_singlemother

The bats have been found in Scottsdale. There was one at Laguna Elementary, which was confirmed had rabies according to the school's letter. The kid touched it - kids will play with anything. These bats are sick and will be around in daylight. I had to immediately educate my kids and myself.

Oh now that's creepy

[sablebaby]

This is funny. I was watering my front yard around sunset today and was spraying my house to get some of the dirt off of it from our dust storms and in the corner of my eye I saw something moving closer to the house. The more the water got closer to it the more it kinda flapped or something to a corner of the house. It crawled up in the corner. I ran in to get my bf to investigate further and he didn't find anything. I told him it was like a bat or something "webbed" like a frog or something. It was weird. I would guess it was a bat, but that was joking around. Now I see this thread!

[Cyanna]

Nothing to worry about. Bats have been flying around Arizona for a very long time and most never even know they are there. Some facts about bats...

• Bats keep down the dangerous insect population, like mosquitoes, which carry West Nile Virus. Bats do not catch West Nile.
• Bats are important indicators of a healthy environment. Because they are sensitive to high pollution and pesticide levels, they are useful as a warning sign to potential environmental problems.
• Bats are not aggressive animals and do not intentionally attack people or other animals, however, they will bite if touched. Other than that, they are not a danger to people, pets or wildlife.
• Many people have serious misconceptions about bats. Perhaps one of the most popular of which is the belief that bats are vicious carriers of rabies. The fact is that bats are actually quite harmless, and do not exhibit any higher percentage of rabies infection than any other animal species. In fact, bats infected with rabies usually do not exhibit the aggressive behavior that often occurs with rabies infection in other animals. Rabies infection normally paralyzes the bat, so do not pick up a bat that may be lying on the ground without protective covering.

[Ponderosa]

Phoenix is visited twice each year by the Mexican free-tailed bat. It is a protected species that migrates from Mexico. They hang around here for a few weeks and then it is on to cooler climes where they spend the summer eating mosquitos. They return to south in the fall. This bat is found throughout the southwestern US into Mexico all the way to South America. There are huge populations of them in San Antonio - one cave having like 20 million of them!


We also have a native population of Vampire bats. Yes Vampires! LOL.

[Paul74]

Its quite serious, after a certain amount of time if you are bitten by a bat with rabies, no one can save you, or rather there is a very low chance of survial if infected. You have to get counter rabies injections within 10/20 hours. I think after 1 day its too late. The puncture marks from a bat bite are so small you may not even know that you have been bitten. I think there was a case in one of the southern states of north america where a bat flew into a bedroom and bit a child, the child eventually died. This is of course a very rare thing but if you have children and there are a lot of them about, be advised and seek out some local advice etc.

[topjimmy]

Bats are super cool creatures and abundant in AZ.

Any mammal can become rabid, there is no more reason to fear a bat than a cat, rat, dog, or person.

I you go to the desert lakes at night, take a lantern and set it next to the water, then watch the show. You will see hundreds of bats swoop down to pick the insects off the surface of the water. It's awesome, try it sometime.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by topjimmy

Bats are super cool creatures and abundant in AZ.

Any mammal can become rabid, there is no more reason to fear a bat than a cat, rat, dog, or person.

I you go to the desert lakes at night, take a lantern and set it next to the water, then watch the show. You will see hundreds of bats swoop down to pick the insects off the surface of the water. It's awesome, try it sometime.

We used to do that in Wisconsin. It really is a neat experience.