By Nathan Barney
ndb26@newsroom.byu.edu
Bats are coming out of the woodwork and from under computer keyboards all over Provo.
Several buildings around Provo have become homes to the Mexican free-tailed bat. These little animals have been cramming their way into holes in walls and behind banners and signs.
Wasatch Elementary, on 900 East in Provo, recently had bats take up residence behind a banner hanging outside its gymnasium. Dan Johnson, a third-grade teacher at the school, was the first to notice the new members of the student body.
He said he was walking from the cafeteria when he heard a squeaking. Thinking he was hearing mice, he looked around and noticed droppings next to the wall. He looked up and noticed a banner hanging on the wall was moving, but the wind wasn't blowing.
It turned out there were an estimated 1,000 bats hiding behind the banner. The school decided to call in an expert, Johnson said.
Hal Black, a professor of zoology at BYU, was called in to consult. He identified the bats as the Mexican free-tail bat.
Black told the school that if they wanted to get rid of the bats they had to destroy the habitat. In this case it was as simple as taking down the banner.
The school invited students and parents to come and watch as they released the bats.
'It is really quite an awesome site to see the bats fly over your head,' said Darlene Amott, who attended the event.
Others described the takeoff of the bats as resembling bombers taking off and flying away.
Several businesses in Provo have also had bats move in and make themselves at home.
NuSkin has had a number of bat-related problems. Bats have been found inside the Kress building on Center Street.
Several dozen bats may have made their home in the building, said Richard Bartlett, of NuSkin property management.
The bats made their way into the building through a small hole in a brick wall. The hole was drilled several years ago, before NuSkin owned the property, to put a pipe through. The bats squeezed through a hole about half an inch wide, Bartlett said.
The bats may have been nesting in the building for only a couple of weeks or for as long as a year, Bartlett said. It is only recently that the bats found their way from an irrigation pipe and into the building.
Sherwin Williams on the corner of 100 North and 300 West in Provo has around 200 bats living under a sign on its outside wall.
Employees have found one sick bat in an alley behind the building. They placed a box over the bat and called animal control. Animal control came and took the bat away, said Sean Eggett, the assistant manager of the store.
Eggett said they have been told there is little they can do to get the bats to leave. He said they have to wait for the bats to fly south for the winter and then seal up the cracks behind the sign, depriving the bats of a place to stay when they return.
'We thought they had left when it got cold, but when it warmed up again they were back,' Eggett said.
While the bats haven't been a problem for Sherwin Williams, the bats have scratched two employees of NuSkin.
One employee was scratched when he got to work in the morning and moved his keyboard. A bat flew out and scratched him as it passed, Bartlett said.
A member of Bartlett's staff was scratched when trying to remove bats from the building. Both employees have been given rabies shots.
Rabies is a concern when anyone comes in contact with a bat, said Ron Tobler, a health inspector for Utah County.
Tobler said bats are an environmentally helpful animal and help to reduce the insect population, but care should be exercised when dealing with the animals.
Rabies is an extremely dangerous disease, and the odds of survival are extremely low if a human, especially if an adult contracts the disease, Tobler said.
'The only case I have heard of someone surviving rabies was with a child,' Tobler said.
People who have been scratched, bitten or exposed to high levels of guano dust (bat feces) should begin the rabies series within two weeks of exposure, Tobler said.
He added that while the incidence of rabies is extremely low throughout the United States, bats are a reservoir for rabies, and care should be taken when dealing with them.
If people find a bat on the ground in the daylight, they should leave it alone, said Clayton White, professor of zoology at BYU. This means the bat is sick and should be avoided.
White has said that bats have received a bad reputation over the years, and there is a lot of misunderstanding about them. White said that while bats are known to carry rabies it is a very small percentage of them that do.
'Most people only see a bat in the day and those they encounter are sick,' White said.
White said there are several possibilities why so many bats have been seen this year. He said this might have been a good breeding year or that there may still be a plentiful supply of insects for food.
'Bats have really been hammered over the last few years,' White said.
Bat populations are down, and the government has listed bats as a sensitive species.
See related story:
Bats infest apartment complex 10/08/2000