The bat is, in its essence, a strange creature. You look at it from one picture and they look adorable; then their wings come out and they look like something from a horror movie. Bats, though, are a species that has been given a hard time in popular culture. They are seen as scary and evil, but they are nothing of the sort. Here, then, are some bat myths that need to be debunked.
Bats are bloodsuckers
Given the connotations that follow a bat biting you, most assume they have a hunger for blood. This is not the case, though. The Common Vampire Bat is the only bat type in the world that actually drinks blood, and they are limited to some quite remote parts of America.
The vast majority of bats, though, have no interest in drinking blood whether it is your blood or the blood of another creature.
Bats are carrying vessels for rabies
This is another common myth that we have to whack down. Rabies is possible to be found in bats, yes, but it is not something that all bats will carry. Poor testing and studying methods in the past have created this myth that bats are rabies-carrying superspecies. This is not the case whatsoever. If a bat does bite you it could pass on some disease.
Bats are generally unhealthy
Another testing quirk is that we are often led to believe that bats are dangerous, unclean, and unhealthy. Given how hard they are to catch, this stems from the fact that most bats studied and tested are found on the ground. This means that they are sick and unhealthy, and therefore we are going to get a biased reading if we only focus on studying bats who are pretty much lying prone on the ground due to illness!
A bat bite makes you an undead horror
Tongue in cheek of course, but the idea in popular culture is that if you are bitten by a bat then you turn into a vampire. As cool as that might be, it is not the case at all. Bats do not bite humans at all, and they are not going to be turning you into an undead lord!
If they do bite you it can transfer some kind of disease, but NOT a disease that makes you lust for blood!