For Immediate Release: Date: June 20, 2016 Contact: Leslie Piotrowski (847) 377-8055
With the weather warming up, bats
become more active as they seek food and shelter in which to raise their
young. While bats have mainly beneficial
effects, with some species able to eat up to 600 insects in an hour, they are
also the only animals that have tested positive for rabies in Lake County in
over 15 years. Because of the potential
for the spread of rabies from bats to humans, the Lake County Health
Department/Community Health Center is urging Lake County residents to avoid
contact with these animals. In a typical
year, the Health Department confirms rabies, a fatal disease that affects the
nervous system of humans and other mammals, in around 3 to 4 percent of the
bats tested.
The Health Department is also
urging anyone who has direct contact with a bat or notices a bat acting in an
unusual manner, such as flying in daylight or lying on the ground or in your
home, to contact Animal Care & Control at (847) 377-4700. If the bat is
inside your house, close the door and keep people away from the room where the
bat is located. Trained animal wardens will remove the bat at no cost to the resident or refer the caller to the appropriate jurisdiction. The Health Department may need to submit the
bat for rabies testing if a household member has had contact with it. Therefore, it is important not to chase the bat away
or discard it. Negative results of testing may eliminate the need for medical
treatment of exposed people.
Parents should make sure children
know that they should never touch a bat that is lying on the ground. The bat
may not be dead, just ill, and could bite.
Pet owners should be on the alert for bats near their homes, because
pets that spend time outdoors can easily come into contact with these animals.
If a rabid animal bites a pet, the pet may, in turn, bite a person,
transmitting rabies to that individual.
Rabies can be avoided in pets by vaccination, which is why a rabies
vaccination is required for dogs and cats.
The Health Department can also
refer callers to bat exclusion companies and provide information on methods for
excluding bats. Bats can be excluded
from living quarters by covering chimneys and vents with half-inch hardware
cloth screens, by installing draft guards beneath doors, and by sealing any
other possible access routes, especially around screen doors, windows and
plumbing. Bats potentially can enter
holes as small as 3/4” in diameter. They do not chew insulation or otherwise
make new holes. Their entries must then be covered or plugged. For small crevices, silicone caulking may
help. If a large bat colony must be
evicted from a wall or attic, careful observations should be made at dusk to
find entry holes (also sometimes recognizable by stains around used holes or
crevices or by droppings beneath). The holes should be plugged after the bats
emerge to feed (which they do during evening hours). For more information,
visit: http://www.lakecountyil.gov/858/Rabies.
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