bats_lg

With the increase of bugs and insects during the summer months, bats can become more common.

While this sounds like a bad thing, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says this can actually work in your favor. Bats can consume between 1,000 and 2,000 small incects a night, according to the Iowa DNR. However, they can provide a threat with transmitting diseases like rabies if they come in contact with people. Dallas County Public Health Public Information Officer Ann Cochran says rabies can be transmitted through brain matter, spinal cords, and most commonly, saliva. 

Treatment for rabies include a series of uncomfortable shots. Cochran says if you’re bitten by a bat to try and capture it so it can be tested, “If you get bit or have been sleeping in a room and discover there’s a bat there in the room where you have been sleeping, you need to wear gloves and capture that bat. Then contact the Department of Health and we can instruct you on how to get it to a lab.”

One way to keep bats out of your home is building a bathouse in your yard. This way bats can feast on bugs around your home, while staying out of your house.