RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Rocker Gets Rabies Shots After Bat Urinates in His Eye

What is it about bats and heavy-metal musicians? Ozzy Osbourne famously interacted with a bat in another way back in 1982, but now a member of heavy metal band Torche is wishing he never came in contact with one of the winged creatures.

“Ok so... A bat peed in my eye,” guitarist Andrew Elstner wrote onhis Facebook page March 29. “Whether or not you think I'm telling the truth is irrelevant at this point. What I'm worried about now is rabies. A bat. It pissed into my eye. [God] help me.”

The musician was staying at a friend’s house in St. Louis when he discovered a trapped and frightened bat in one of the rooms.

"I switch on the overhead light/ceiling fan combo and what I think at first is a shadow being cast from the spinning fan blades turns out to be a freaking bat,” the musician explained. “It circles the room a few times at light speed, and on one of the turns, dive bombs my head and squirts a little nervous pee into my eye. Holy [expletive]. I'm laughing but run to the sink and attempt to flush my eye out. I'm pretty sure I'm fine but...Not the most common of occurrences.”

Elstner initially brushed it off, but, at the recommendation of both his parents and doctors, the musician went to the hospital to be treated a day later.

He added, “With rabies, you have a short window to get treated, and beyond that, it is incurable and 100% fatal. Having said all that, I feel like I'm getting treated for a unicorn bite. Bunch of nonsense.”

Elstner told msnbc.com that his treatment "wasn't so bad." "I had five (shots) totally and while I'm generally terrified of needles, the nurse was pretty attractive so that helped."

The guitarist, whose Florida-based band is on the road promoting the April 24 release of their new album, “Harmonicraft,” has since swapped his own Facebook profile photo for that of a fang-baring bat, and has continued to find humor in the situation, posting various updates and coverage of his story to fans.

“The bat peeing in my eye story has finally achieved critical mass,” Elstner wrote Wednesday, when his story was picked up by Pitchfork Media. “What a truly strange, though now harmless, event in my life.”

He told msnbc.com, "I had written that post just for my friends because I thought the story was hilarious."

And for Elstner’s fans and followers, the encounter proved equally amusing.

Wrote Annie Zed, “This pretty much cements your status in metal's immortal brotherhood."

Source = MSNBC Entertainment

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bat Flu? Human Risk Unclear

For the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear.

The surprising discovery of genetic fragments of a flu virus is the first well-documented report of it in the winged mammals. So far, scientists haven't been able to grow it, and it's not clear if — or how well — it spreads.

Flu bugs are common in humans, birds and pigs and have even been seen in dogs, horses, seals and whales, among others. About five years ago, Russian virologists claimed finding flu in bats, but they never offered evidence.

"Most people are fairly convinced we had already discovered flu in all the possible" animals, said Ruben Donis, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who co-authored the new study.

Scientists suspect that some bats caught flu centuries ago and that the virus mutated within the bat population into this new variety. Scientists haven't even been able to grow the new virus in chicken eggs or in human cell culture, as they do with more conventional flu strains.

But it still could pose a threat to humans. For example, if it mingled with more common forms of influenza, it could swap genes and mutate into something more dangerous, a scenario at the heart of the global flu epidemic movie "Contagion."

The research was posted online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The CDC has an international outpost in Guatemala, and that's where researchers collected more than 300 bats in 2009 and 2010. The research was mainly focused on rabies, but the scientists also checked specimens for other germs and stumbled upon the new virus. It was in the intestines of little yellow-shouldered bats, said Donis, a veterinarian by training.

These bats eat fruit and insects but don't bite people. Yet it's possible they could leave the virus on produce and a human could get infected by taking a bite.

It's conceivable some people were infected with the virus in the past. Now that scientists know what it looks like, they are looking for it in other bats as well as humans and other animals, said Donis, who heads the Molecular Virology and Vaccines Branch in the CDC's flu division.

At least one expert said CDC researchers need to do more to establish they've actually found a flu virus.

Technically, what the CDC officials found was genetic material of a flu virus. They used a lab technique to find genes for the virus and amplify it.

All they found was a segment of genetic material, said Richard "Mick" Fulton, a bird disease researcher at Michigan State University.

What they should do is draw blood from more bats, try to infect other bats and take other steps to establish that the virus is spreading among the animals, he continued. "In my mind, if you can't grow the virus, how do you know that the virus is there?"

Donis said work is going on to try to infect healthy bats, but noted there are other viruses that were discovered by genetic sequencing.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bats Found At Elementary School

The School District of Pickens County is working to remove bats that have invaded the gym at Clemson Elementary.

District spokeswoman Julie Thompson told News 4 the gym was closed to everyone on Jan. 13 after the bats were discovered in the eaves of the building.

In a statement, Thompson said, "District officials are actively exploring options to determine the number of bats, how they have entered the gym, when they can be removed, and how they can be removed. We assure everyone that the health and safety of our students and staff are priorities as we find the best solution to dealing with the situation. We are also committed to keeping Clemson Elementary parents fully informed at all times."

One parent said he didn't mind the District erring on the side of caution.

"It's kind of random. You don't really give bats much thought, and when you hear about them in the school, it's not something you're expecting to hear from your school," the parent said. "I understand (the District has) to do what they have to do. They'll get the bats out soon."

Third-grader Ethan Richard said he didn't mind the bats.

"I think they're pretty cool," said Richard. "Well, not the part where we can't go to (physical education class)."

Richard's recreational basketball games are also played at the school's gym. For the time being, the games have been moved to a local church's gym.

"I hope (the bats) find a nice place, so they can survive, but not at our gym," said Richard.

Fifth grader Caitlin Pargue said instead of the gym, students are playing games and doing art during P.E.

"It's not that fun," said Pargue. "I don't like (the bats). They're scary."

This isn't the first time bats have been found at a Pickens County school.

In 2009, wildlife experts set up traps to remove and relocate bats that had invaded Gettys Middle School.

Thompson said the District is still "in the planning stages" of how to move the bats this time.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Nearly 7 Million Bats May Have Died From White-Nose Fungus, Officials Say

More than five years since the deadly white-nose fungus was first detected in a New York cave where bats hibernate, up to 6.7 million of the animals are estimated to have died in 16 states and Canada, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.

The estimate, drawn from surveys by wildlife officials mostly in Northeastern states where the disease thrives, confirmed the worst fears of biologists who have been counting dead bats covered in the powdery fungus in mines and caves every winter and worrying whether the little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the tricolored bat will survive.

“We’re watching a potential extinction event on the order of what we experienced with bison and passenger pigeons for this group of mammals,” said Mylea Bayless, conservation programs manager for Bat Conservation International in Austin, Tex.

“The difference is we may be seeing the regional extinction of multiple species,” Bayless said. “Unlike some of the extinction events or population depletion events we’ve seen in the past, we’re looking at a whole group of animals here, not just one species. We don’t know what that means, but it could be catastrophic.”

Bats are a top nocturnal predator, picking off night-flying insects that feed on agricultural crops and forests. A reproductive female consumes her weight in bugs each night. In a single summer, a colony of 150 brown bats can eat enough adult cucumber beetles to prevent the laying of eggs that result in 33 million rootworm larvae, according to a study cited by Bat Conservation International.

White-nose syndrome is caused by an aggressive fungus called Geomyces destructans that eats through the skin and membranes of bats. It was first detected at Howes Cave near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.

Since then, biologists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Indiana and other states have returned to caves and mines during the annual winter hibernation of bats and reported alarming numbers of fresh dead to wildlife and gaming agencies.

Tuesday’s estimate of 5.7 million to 6.7 million dead bats dwarfed the previous count of slightly more than a million in 2009. The estimate was derived from winter trips to mines and caves through December 2011.

Clustered as high as 30 feet above the floor, the bats are difficult to see, so digital images are captured and studied, said Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“They . . . basically count the noses,” Coleman said. Otherwise “you look at a big brown smudge of bats. Indiana bats can have 300 in a square foot. You can get a much more accurate count with digital imagery,” he said.

The declining population found in the winter counts was supported by summer counts, where bats are tracked to areas where they feed and roost.

The bats being wiped out by white-nose syndrome are usually long-lived, up to 20 years. Mates produce a pup per year. They usually hibernate in the same places year to year, and they return to the same place to feed.

Biologists said the bats’ decline could begin to affect the general public if their disappearance results in swarms of the insects they feed on, and higher food prices if food crops are invaded, biologists said.

A paper published last year in the journal Science, relying on the lower mortality rate projected in 2009, estimated that 1,320 metric tons of insect pests were not eaten because of the decline in bats.

The paper products industry could also be hard hit if pests such as the emerald ash borer proliferate in the absence of bats. Loggers in states such as Vermont “ought to be concerned, but I don’t think the word has really gotten out to these folks,” said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity in Richmond, Vt.

“It certainly behooves people concerned about the health of forests — loggers or ecologists — to pay attention,” Matteson said. “But it’s hard to make a direct connection between 7 million bats dead and what happens to forest pests.”

A recent report said bat colonies found in Vermont and Pennsylvania were an indication that some are managing to survive the fungus. But those data are inconclusive, and hopes based on the report might be misplaced, Coleman said.

In Pennsylvania, where the mortality rate of the most common bats is nearly 100 percent, farmers and homeowners are showing concern, said Greg Turner, an endangered-mammals specialist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

With 95 percent mortality, there’s little hope that the little brown bats will survive in the state, but Turner isn’t giving up on saving them. “I’m going to plug forward all the way to the bitter end, if there is a bitter end. Hopefully, there won’t be,” he said.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Bat Problem Closes School

An Upstate elementary school remained closed on Friday as district officials try to make sure that a bat problem has been solved.

Fountain Inn Elementary dismissed early on Thursday after a bat got into one of the classrooms, one day after a bat removal expert got more than 300 bats out of the building.

On Friday, school district officials met with a bat expert from Clemson University to find out how to treat and control the Mexican free-tailed bats.

Bat removal specialists also did a walk-through of the school on Friday to make sure all entrance points have been secured to keep bats from getting back into the building.

Two bats that were found inside the building both tested negative for rabies.

School officials said all of the bat droppings were found outside of the building. The droppings were removed with a high-strength cleanser that school officials said is nontoxic for children.

South Carolina Department of Environmental Control spokesman Adam Myrick said the bat problem started at Fountain Inn Elementary about three weeks ago.

District officials say they didn't close the school initially because they felt they had the bat problem under control. They said the public hasn't been privy to what was going on behind the scenes.

District officials said they didn't feel the need to dismiss or close school until a bat disrupted a music class Thursday.

Officials will continue to monitor the building this weekend to see if any other bats are still inside.

Director of Communications Oby Lyles said specialists don’t think there are bats still inside the building, but they aren't 100 percent sure.

Lyles said, “We feel like we've done everything we can to address the problem. It's no different than at your own home. It's very difficult to get rid of bats, but we feel like we're making every effort we can to do that.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA