Information for School Administrators
Every year in Colorado, children find rabid bats on schools grounds and bring rabid bats to school for show-and-tell. Several of these incidents result in children having to be vaccinated for rabies each year, which entails a 2 week series of vaccinations. Since rabies is fatal, such an exposure that goes unreported to adults could lead to the tragic loss of a child’s life.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) believes that prevention of contact between bats and children is extremely important and includes three key components:
- Educating children to not touch bats or other wildlife and to immediately report a bat found on the ground to an adult
- Informing school staff on what to do if a bat is found on the ground
- Decreasing the chance of bats being found on
school grounds by:
- informing school officials on the importance of discouraging bats from roosting in or on school buildings
- implementing training for county environmental health specialists to inspect schools to identify the presence of roosting bats, and
- providing resources to schools for what to do if a bat colony is on school grounds
Teaching
Children about Bats
Children need to be shown what a real bat looks like,
since most people have only seen bats either in cartoons
or flying in the air from a distance at dusk. When a
bat is on the ground, it is difficult for both children
and adults to recognize it as a bat, because the wings
may be folded inward. Children should be taught to not
touch a bat and to immediately tell an adult. Adults
must learn the safe way of capturing a bat.
Please
consider showing your
children the video
"Bats and Rabies at
Schools"
and the Spanish version
"Bats and Rabies at
Schools".
If you
are a school
administrator, teacher,
or school nurse, please
consider showing the
Rabies Educational Video
designed for school
staff:
Bats at Schools
CDPHE will soon be posting/imbedding the same videos with CDPHE logos to replace ADHS logos.
Please also consider printing and distributing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment children’s rabies poster to your local schools where bat colonies may be roosting. In order to obtain the data file for a 17x22 version of the Bats at Schools poster, please contact the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment at 303-692-2700.
Maricopa County Animal Care & Control in Phoenix, Arizona, has created several educational materials related to pet care, dog bites, and rabies, including a comic book for children on bats in English and Spanish. Check out the "My Friend Toby" Bat Bites comic book [PDF] (also available in Spanish [PDF]) published by Maricopa County for a fun way to educate children about bats and rabies.”
If
a bat is found on the
ground, cover it with a
small box or other solid
container. Gently slip a
piece of cardboard
between the ground and
box and slide the bat
into the box. Use
leather gloves to
prevent accidental
contact between hands
and the bat. Make sure
that all seams are
tightly sealed, because
bats can fit through
small crevices. Call
your local animal
control agency. Assure
that the bat is not
within a child’s or
pet’s reach.
Schools with Bat Colonies
If your school has a colony of bats roosting on school grounds, CDPHE recommends calling the Colorado Division of Wildlife to find a local wildlife trapper with expertise in bat exclusion.
The University of
Arizona Cooperative
Extension Office has
created “Batty about
Bats,” an educational
document on the biology
of bats, integrated pest
management (IPM) for
bats, and rabies
prevention. The IPM
portion of this document
includes steps that
schools can implement to
discourage bats from
roosting on the outside
of buildings.
However, removal and/or
exclusion of bats from
the interior of a
building or structure
should be conducted by a
local wildlife trapper
with expertise in bat
exclusion. For more
information about IPM
related to bats, please
view “Batty about Bats”
on the University of
Arizona Cooperative
Extension webpage:
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/az1456.pdf
.
- Bat photos courtesy DesertUSA.Com.