Have You Seen Bats?

I’ve been comparing notes on bats with a reader in Boothbay. We’ve each seen one bat this year. Have you noticed a decline in the bat population in your area?

I normally see them catching bugs when I leave the porch light on and just above the surface of the pond. The bat I saw was a few miles from home while fly fishing one evening. White-Nosed Syndrome has been confirmed in Maine.

Bat Disease, White-Nose Syndrome, Confirmed in Maine

Bat-Killing White Nose Syndrome Confirmed in Maine

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife offers these tips on its website:

To help reduce the spread of white-nose syndrome, people are asked to follow these guidelines:

  • Do not handle alive or dead bats

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  • Do not enter caves or mines in Maine during the winter hibernation months. Disturbing bats during hibernation causes them to use limited fat reserves and could cause mortality in already health-compromised bats

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  • For the most up-to-date cave and mine closures and decontamination procedures, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service White-Nose Syndrome web site: www.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome
  • If you have bats roosting in domestic structures, allow them to rear their pups and exit the structure at the end of the summer before closing off any entrance holes. Provide bats with a bat house for when they return next year.

Comments

  1. The bat population at our billions o’ bugs house in Durham, ME has remained steady at a total of 2 every year for about 12 years. They used to sleep on the front porch but not in recent years. We named them Bobby & Betty. One summer we had a very sick bat – tested positive for rabies by the state.