Bats get a bad rap year-round — but especially at Halloween.

Images of blood-sucking vampire bats stoke scary stuff, but the reality of these unselfish flying mammals and their usefulness to agriculture and medicine is less frightening than clowns.

To dispel myths, Southwestern Michigan College environmental science instructor Donna Courtney addressed Dowagiac’s Town and Country Garden Club Oct. 13 at Front Street Crossing.

Three bat species that feed on blood live in Central and South America but prefer birds, cows, pigs and other hooved animals.

“Vampire bats return to their colony and regurgitate blood for members not able to feed,” Courtney said.

“Blind as a bat” is a misnomer,she said.

“Big fruit bats rely on sight and smell,” Courtney said. “Even small insect-eating bats have excellent sight — particularly at night. They use echolocation, like radar or sonar, sending out a signal and waiting for bounce-back.”

Bats don’t tangle in hair. “I heard that growing up,” Courtney said. “Bats swoop close because they’re interested in insects attracted to carbon dioxide we exhale.

“Less than 5 percent of bats turned in to health departments nationwide test positive for rabies. The likelihood of contracting rabies from a bat is small, but there is potential, so if you find a bat don’t handle it with bare hands.”

“There are lots of benefits to having bats around,” she said. “Most people know about insect control. They eat their own body weight in bugs every night — up to 3,000 mosquitoes. The amount of agricultural pests they eat saves farmers $23 billion a year in chemical pesticides. For some reason, the little incision vampire bats make, the wound never clots. Scientists are investigating saliva to isolate anticoagulant proteins with the hope it can be used as the basis for anticoagulant drugs without warfarin side-effects.”

There are more than 1,200 bat species — second only to rodents.

“Rats are genetically closer to humans than bats,” she said.

The biggest, golden-capped fruit bats with 9-foot wingspans, are herbivores found in India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The smallest, Kitti’s hog-nosed “bumblebee bats,” fit on fingertips.

“They are the only mammal with true bird-like flight,” Courtney said. “Flying” squirrels glide.

Bats experience torpor, a short-term body temperature reduction. Hibernation is an extended form of torpor.

“They’ll sleep a few weeks, move around, then go back to sleep to conserve energy,” Courtney said. “Their heart rate slows to such a low level their bodies can withstand deep cold. [Researchers] look at how bats do that to come up with new techniques for surgical hypothermia used in open-heart surgery. Our brains don’t like to get cold for that long. Our hearts don’t like to restart. But bats do it all the time. How? Small mammals such as mice, gerbils, even rats, live two to three years. Bats, on the other hand, have lived 38 years in captivity and 35 years in the wild.”

Threats to bats include predators such as hawks, owls and cats.

“My dog caught one earlier this year and played with it,” Courtney said. “They are dealing with habitat loss as cities expand further out. Most bats prefer to live away from humans. But the biggest problem bats face right now is disease, white-nose syndrome.”

A fungal growth around muzzles and on wings of hibernating bats was first identified in 2006 in an upstate New York cave and spread to 29 states, including Oregon. Some bats migrate to Kentucky, Tennessee or Virginia for winter.

“To conserve bats, avoid using chemical pesticides, leave dead trees standing — they like roosting between the tree and bark — plant plants that attract night-flying insects and exclusion. Wait until October to plug openings or risk walling off a mother from babies still inside.

“They like getting up under roof shingles where they meet the eaves,” she said. “Bats around here live in colonies of two dozen,” compared to Bracken Cave, Texas, fueling tourism with 20 million Brazilian free-tailed bats roosting March to October.

“I’m here as myself and not some character,” Courtney said, alluding to her longtime Beckwith Theatre involvement. “Big browns,” prevalent in southwest Michigan, “are what we had in the theatre.”

Southwestern Michigan College is a public, residential and commuter, community college, founded in 1964. The college averages in the top 10 percent nationally for student academic success based upon the National Community College Benchmark Project. Southwestern Michigan College strives to be the college of first choice, to provide the programs and services to meet the needs of students, and to serve our community. The college is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges.