NEWS

House bats mean rabies shots for ISU students

MacKenzie Elmer
melmer@dmreg.com
A bat sleeps at the intersection of the chimney and ceiling in an Ames home.

A group of Iowa State University students had to visit three different hospitals for rabies vaccinations Tuesday night after local animal control authorities learned they caught more than 20 bats flying about their Ames home.

Quinn Nordland, 21, of Libertyville, Ill., sent The Des Moines Register a picture of a live mouse-sized bat Wednesday night, sleeping where their chimney meets the ceiling.

Collectively, the six men living in the rented three-story Ames home in the 2800 block of Lincoln Way have killed 23 bats and counting. Their basement roommate woke up to the first bat and hit it with his pillow Sunday night, Nordland said. Then, he texted his five other roommates again at 5 a.m. saying he'd found a second one.

"Slowly but surely, they kept coming. They started going through the vents and getting into other floors," Nordland said.

The boys walk the hallways at night armed with tennis rackets. Nordland said he has felt bats fly between his legs and another roommate found one in his bed, but they've never felt any bites.

“With rabies being a fatal disease, you can’t take any chances,” said Ron Edwards, Ames Animal Control supervisor. “You could easily be in bed and have one of them bite you, and you wouldn’t know."

A bat lies at the base of a fan at an Ames home.

Ames Animal Control tested one of the bats for rabies; it was negative. But when Edwards found out how many bats the tenants and their girlfriends had been exposed to, the lot were sent to three hospitals for shots.

Some said they went to Mary Greeley Medical Center, which keeps six doses on hand, according to a spokesman, but the amount of vaccine depends on a person’s height and weight.

ISU senior Tyler Sullivan, 23, said he got seven shots Wednesday night. He missed a day of class because the shots made him feel sore and stiff.

As a precaution, staff at animal control are vaccinated annually against rabies, so they were authorized to picked up the 23 bat bodies Wednesday.

Bat teeth are so small they can bite without their victims feeling a thing, Edwards said. And, once symptoms of rabies start to appear, it may be too late.

In 2014, Iowa saw 15 rabies cases in animals; 10 of those were bats. That’s slightly higher than the 12 animal cases reported the year before. The most recent rabies case in an Iowan was in 2002, caused by a bat strain.

The tenants reported the problem to their landlord Aug. 31, but felt they didn't get much help, Nordland said.

Bats on the floor of an home in Ames.

Mike Fresco of First Property Management, which operates more than 725 rentals, said that he didn’t know the magnitude of the problem and that he’d only heard about a “bat or two.” The company hired Preferred Pest Management to handle it, he said.

“I’m working on a solution with them. I haven’t had a chance to get all of (the tenants) communicated to, but we’re currently working on a mitigation action plan to wrap it up. We don’t want it any more than anybody else,” Fresco said.

But the men are frustrated with exterminators because the bat problem persists.

Nathan Teed, a pest control technician with the company, said technicians can't kill bats because they're a protected species in Iowa. Instead, they can only "encourage them to leave" by sealing up holes and putting up a net in the chimney to keep the bats from flying into the house, but allowing them to crawl out.

Nordland said he doesn't want to kill the bats, but it's easier than shooing out dozens.

“It’s honestly gotten far worse. It used to just be they come out at night. Now they’re out in the day and sleeping in our hallways. It’s really a big fiasco," Nordland said.

It's unclear how the landlords and tenants will settle the dispute. Ann Garvey, state public health veterinarian, said she has heard estimates that the shot series can cost thousands of dollars.

“Our property manager will be getting the bill for it. They know they’re not doing much for us,” Sullivan said.

Vents and other areas where bats were found at an Ames apartment.

What to do if you see a bat in your home

Ron Edwards, the Ames Animal Control supervisor, said if you see a bat in your house, give them a call. 

"We don't want them to handle it themselves," Edwards said. "Don't take a chance. Contact animal control as soon as you see one. If you see a bunch of bats flying in your house, you need to get out." 

Ann Garvey, state public health veterinarian, said her department typically sees more bat exposures in autumn as younger bats begin to mature and start to migrate. 

Bats and skunks are the top two rabies-carrying mammals in Iowa, though any mammal can contract the deadly disease. However, the disease is very preventable, even if you've been exposed, Garvey said. 

Rabies is contracted through saliva and neural tissue; you can't get it through blood, feces or urine. 

The vaccination has never failed to prevent a person from developing the disease, Garvey said, as long as they receive the full series of shots. 

Only one to three people are infected annually in the United States, but about 40,000 people per year receive rabies vaccinations. 

What to do if you're bitten

Wash the bite or wound with soap and water immediately. Contact your health care provider. 

When to get tested

"Anytime someone has a known bat bite, if someone wakes up to find a bat in the room they’re sleeping in, if found in a room with an unsupervised child, or if someone is unable to say whether they’ve been bitten or not, consider that an exposure," Garvey said. 

Bat teeth are so small, the wound may be almost impossible to see. 

If a person captures the bat culprit and it tests negative for rabies, no vaccinations are needed, Garvey said. 

"Sometimes people will say, I had this bat in my bedroom two days ago, but we didn't have that bat to test, then we would recommend you get shots," she said. 

Any health care provider in the state can order the series of four to five vaccinations, and it will be shipped overnight so the product can be administered the next day. 

Symptoms of rabies

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first symptoms of rabies may be very similar to those of the flu, including general weakness or discomfort, fever, or headache. 

There may be a prickling or itching sensation at the site of the bite, progressing within days to symptoms of cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, confusion and agitation. As the disease progresses, the person may experience delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations and insomnia.

The acute period of disease typically ends after two to 10 days. Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal.

Detailed information about rabies in the state of Iowa can be found on the Iowa Department of Public Health website