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Dr.
Ngozi Ezike, director of the department, said only a small
percentage of bats get rabies but a bite from a rabid bat can be
fatal. She advises people to avoid touching bats and recommends
sealing up any openings in your house where bats can get it.
Dr. Will Sanders, assistant professor of veterinary medicine and
preventative medicine and public health director at the
University of Illinois, said bats can bite people who are
sleeping. They have very tiny teeth and people may not be aware
that they have been bitten. Bats are very afraid of people and
normally stay far away from them.
If you find a bat in your living room, that bat may be sick and
disoriented, he warns.
“Err on the side of caution, because rabies is pretty much one
hundred percent fatal if you get clinical signs and get sick. We
want you to get treatment before you develop those signs,”
Sanders said.
If you find a bat in your house, the best thing to do is put on
leather gloves and protective clothing and trap the bat in a box
so that you can bring it in for testing. If you don’t want to
catch the bat yourself, call wildlife control or a wildlife
management company and have them come get the bat.
"You can’t tell by looking at a bat if it has rabies," Sanders
said.
Laboratory testing is the only way to determine if a bat is
rabid.
When people find a bat lying on the ground, their first impulse
can be to pick the bat up and try to help it.
“That is the way people get exposed,” Sanders said.
Sanders said bats are “fantastic creatures.” He said they get a
bad rap.
“We don’t want people to be afraid of bats,” Sanders said. “They
are great for the ecosystem. They eat mosquitoes and other bugs
that bother us. We just want to be cautious about how we
interact with them.”
Sanders highly recommends bat houses that you can buy at garden
centers and put in your yard.
“Having a bat house is great. We want to have more bats. They
add to our biodiversity and they help with pest control. I fully
support bat houses,” Sanders said.
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