Bats in Utah are GOOD!

If you step outside anytime between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Southern Utah, mysterious small flapping creatures can be seen. Those are bats.

Before you do an 80s horror movie scream you should know that bats seriously just have a bad reputation. Commonly associated with vampires, horror, blood, and all things spooky, these mammals have been hated by many.

However, their reputation is commonly enforced and that doesn’t help.

In Southern Utah, these little guys are imperative to the ecosystem and are actually one of the most common pollinators! Bees and bats are seriously helpful even if bats can SEEM scary.

This time of year, locals have the opportunity to watch bats flying right outside their homes, especially if it's close to a water source or any of the red rocks. Ivins is a prime location for bat viewing. The Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining said there are 18 species of bats in the state and none of them will suck your blood.

In fact, they’ll get rid of actual pests since our local bats mainly eat flying insects, but some bat species also eat spiders and scorpions. Yuck!

So, despite bat’s bad reputations they are actually helping out humans quite a bit. Especially if you’re not a fan of bugs like me. The last full weekend of August is International Bat “Night” and it’s a weekend to go out and view these lovely pollinators and pest controllers. It also helps fight the stigma, the National Day Calendar said.

We would love to see any pictures you take! You can message us on our FB page here.