Halloween is just around the corner and that means an abundance images, like witches, goblins and bats will soon be served up via mass media including newspapers.

Depending with whom you speak, witches and goblins are just for fun. However, bats do exist and that’s a good thing. Bats, you ask? Aren’t they rabies-spreading “rats with wings” that try to bite your neck?

Bats actually are an important part of the ecosystem. A single bat can eat hundreds of insects in an hour, providing a good deal of pest control without harmful pesticides. Bats too are effective pollinators and seed dispersers.

Bats also are cool animals, being the only mammals that can fly and using echolocation to eat tiny flying insects.

Unfortunately, scientists say natural and human-made threats to bats in Michigan could wipe out certain populations over the next number of years.

Loss of habitat, wind turbines and a disease-causing fungus are among the culprits. The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome is the bats’ biggest threat.

The fungus forces infected bats to wake up from hibernation frequently and use up their fat stores before winter is over. That means they starve to death.

In recent years, the disease has spread to counties in Michigan, including Dickinson, Keweenaw, Mackinac and Ontonagon counties.

Most susceptible are big brown bats, little brown bats, tri-colored bats, northern long-eared bats and Indiana bats.

How can bats be helped? Research by scientists is critical. On a personal level, people can stay out of sites where bats are hibernating and allow bats to live on their property, with live and dead trees with cracks and cavities benefitting bats and other wildlife.

As with many issues, education is crucial, including passing on information on the value of bats and why their continued existence is important.

Imagine a world without bats and the overabundance of insects that would result. That’s truly a scary thought, never mind Halloween.

— The Mining Journal, Marquette