First vampire bat bite death in U.S. reported

[nmbluesky]

The United States has now recorded its first death from a vampire bat bite
Despite “True Blood’s” Louisiana setting, nobody thought of vampire bats because there are no vampire bats in the United States outside of zoos. But the young man had only just arrived in the United States. As an investigation later discovered, he had been bitten on the heel of his foot on July 15 while sleeping back home in Michoacán, a state in Mexico’s southwest.
The bat had transmitted rabies, a common complication from vampire bat bites in central and South America. Doctors did begin to suspect rabies — and the state’s public health office was duly notified, but it wasn’t until August 20 that rabies tests came back positive. He died on August 21.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44112941/ns/health-health_care/

[in_cog_ni_to]

1. EEEk! That thing is UGLY!

:scared:

[Lisa0825]

2. Awwww, I actually think bats are pretty cute! nt

[haikugal]

4. More people need to read The Bat Poet

The Bat-Poet" is a haunting little story, a parable of charming instruction -- and of instructive charm. It is truly about a bat and at the same time truly about a poet. The animal is real as an animal and the human activity is also real. This union is often asserted or hoped for in current children's books, but not usually achieved. The poetry is not brought in by the back door in a mood of earnest pedagogy. These lovely verses are the kind a reflective, gentle bat would write if he were the poet Randall Jarrell.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/01/specials/jarrell-bat.html


A shame this poor man died.

[Lisa0825]

10. Thank you. I will look it up! nt

[Seedersandleechers]

5. I think so too

Was honored with one for awhile about a year and a half ago on my ceiling for about two months. They are cute to me.

[cwydro]

7. I agree, bats are wonderful creatures.

Very misunderstood.

[Lisa0825]

11. I thought about putting up a bat house in my back yard....

I read that they are great for natural mosquito control... the thing that gave me pause is that it seems the type of structure that attracts bats is also attractive to wasps, and I have a severe fear of wasps.

Sounds silly, doesn't it? I am not afraid of bats, but I am afraid of an insect.

Maybe I'll get over it and give it a try.

[Occulus]

9. They're really just flying mice

Many species eat fruit.

Except vampire bats, obviously. But even in this case, it wasn't the bat bite itself that killed him, but the rabies he got when he was bit. You can get that from many animals.

One thing that should scare you is ticks. Ticks can carry Lyme disease, which is often hard to diagnose (especially if the bite lacks the signature bullseye pattern) and can be very debilitating. If you live anywhere there are ticks, do not walk in long grass while wearing shorts, and be sure to check your skin- all of it- carefully anyway after a day in the wilderness to make sure you didn't pick any up. If you did, mark the site with a black marker or ball-point pen and keep an eye on it, and see a doctor immediately if any kind of bite pattern develops.

[GoCubsGo]

19. Ummm. No. They are not "just flying mice"

Not even close. Mice are rodents. Bats are not. The vast majority of bat species, especially North American species, eat insects exclusively. Only the tropical "megabats" bats are fruit-eaters, while a few species eat fish.

[Occulus]

22. I was being practical, not scientific.

They're more afraid of us than we are of them, they're tiny and furry, they claw their way through the air, and they're mostly harmless. They're 'flying mice'. That's a description, not an insult.

Bats are, in this climate, to insects as mice are to seeds and... whatever else they eat, and both are about as vital to the food chain as honeybees. Without bats and other insect-eating creatures, we'd be overrun rather quickly, just as without pollinators, we wouldn't have crops to harvest.

I didn't know that some bats eat fish. That's kind of hard to swallow :silly:

[Tesha]

18. 'Looks kinda like Bachmann, doesn't it?

Two matching likely-rabid bloodsuckers!

Tesha

[GoCubsGo]

20. Please don't insult the bat.

It's kinda cute, and serves a purpose in the ecosystem. Bachmann--nothing but a huge waste of carbon.

[hlthe2b]

3. Ok.. but actually a rabies death transmitted by bat...

But, I guess that doesn't allow for the "vampire" angle to come through ;)

[cwydro]

8. Never heard of a vampire bat biting a human...

only animals.

[Occulus]

12. It *was* rabid.

That's likely why.

I've never understood why some people are so deathly afraid of bats. They're very beneficial; many species eat insects and help keep the mosquito, fly, and noseeum population down, and they will almost never hit a person, because their echolocation is so incredibly accurate that they just don't hit anything while in flight.

Little-known fact: humans can echolocate too.

[cwydro]

15. Absolutely!

And they are NOT blind as so many people think!

I used to be a caver back in my college days and became very acquainted with the sweet creatures.

[hlthe2b]

13. BBC: Peru battles rabid vampire bats after 500 people bitten

13 August 2010
Peru's health ministry has sent emergency teams to a remote Amazon region to battle an outbreak of rabies spread by vampire bats.

Four children in the Awajun indigenous tribe died after being bitten by the bloodsucking mammals.

Health workers have given rabies vaccine to more than 500 people who have also been attacked.

Some experts have linked mass vampire bat attacks on people in the Amazon to deforestation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-1096038

************
Human bites appear to be on the increase....

[cwydro]

14. Thanks for the link...

Never heard this.

It is not a usual thing in the US; perhaps I should have been more specific.

[elocs]

6. Mark Twain on bats (a funny piece):

http://www.twainquotes.com/Bats.html

A bat is beautifully soft and silky; I do not know any creature that is pleasanter to the touch or is more grateful for caressings, if offered in the right spirit. I know all about these coleoptera, because our great cave, three miles below Hannibal, was multitudinously stocked with them, and often I brought them home to amuse my mother with. It was easy to manage if it was a school day, because then I had ostensibly been to school and hadn't any bats. She was not a suspicious person, but full of trust and confidence; and when I said, "There's something in my coat pocket for you," she would put her hand in. But she always took it out again, herself; I didn't have to tell her. It was remarkable, the way she couldn't learn to like private bats. The more experience she had, the more she could not change her views.

[larwdem]

16. bats

bats hear cary rabies too I know because I had to get the shots.

[cwydro]

17. what in hell did you just write?

did you mean "bats here carry rabies too, because I had to get the shots"?

why would you have to get shots unless you were bitten?

[larwdem]

21. no

the bat bit a horse the horse got rabies from the bat and I had to get the shots. because I was in contact with the horse. P.S. The horse died