First off, bats are the good guys
Let’s kick this off with the common misconception about bats – they are dangerous, dirty, they carry diseases, they drink blood. Is any of it true?
I sat down with a few very enthusiastic members of the Slovenian Association for Bat Research and Conservation, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. They are running a special project called Bats – Ljubljana’s Mysterious Inhabitants, with the goal of busting the above-mentioned myths and educating people about bats.
They were happy to tell me that bats aren’t dangerous. Furthermore, they are clean animals and in Slovenia there haven’t been any cases of bats carrying or transmitting any diseases.
Because bats feed on mosquitos and other insects, they are actually great to have around. In just one hour one bat can eat up to 500 of these pests. And their feces – guano is an excellent soil fertilizer.