Bats live anywhere in the world where water is available. Bats can be found in almost every part of the world except where it is very, very hot or in the really cold areas and on some remote islands.  They live on all continents except Antarctica.

Echolocation calls are usually ultrasonic--ranging in frequency from 20 to 200 kilohertz (kHz), whereas human hearing normally tops out at around 20 kHz. In terms of loudness, bats emit calls as low as 50 dB and as high as 120 dB, which is louder than a smoke alarm 10 centimeters from your ear. That's not just loud, but damaging to human hearing. For bats to listen to the echoes of their original emissions and not be temporarily deafened by the intensity of their own calls, the middle ear muscle (called the stapedius) contracts to separate the three bones there--the malleus, incus and stapes, or hammer, anvil and stirrup--and reduce the hearing sensitivity. This contraction occurs about 6 ms before the larynx muscles (called the crycothyroid) begin to contract. The middle ear muscle relaxes 2 to 8 ms later. At this point, the ear is ready to receive the echo of an insect one meter away, which takes only 6 ms.

The European corn borer is an introduced insect species that belongs to the family Pyralidae in the order Lepidoptera. It probably arrived in North America during the early 1900s in broom corn imported from Hungary and Italy for the manufacture of brooms. First noticed near Boston, Mass., in 1917, the European corn borer also was found later, in 1921, in areas bordering Lake Erie. It spread gradually from southern Michigan and northern Ohio. By the end of 1938, it had spread only as far west as the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/pest/cornborer/insect

Sanborn's Long-nosed Bat (Leptonycteris sanborni) and Mexican Long-nosed Bat (L. nivalis) Nectar and pollen are the main food items for long-nosed bats. Some plants, such as the Saguaro and Organ Pipe cacti, some species of agaves, and a variety of tropical species, open their flowers at night and attract bats with copious amounts of nectar.

Today, most of the agaves employed in the production of pulque, mezcal, and tequila are cultivated and vegetatively propagated. Wild populations of "maguey pulqero" (A. salmiana), as well as of A. angustifolia and A. tequilana, still exist. In fact, part of the mezcal and pulque production comes from these uncultivated stocks. These wild populations depend on the bats for their conservation. Bees, moths, lizards, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, orioles, finches, sparrows and field mice all depend on plants pollinated by long-nosed bats

Bats will not get caught in your hair. Bats can detect objects has thin as a human hair.

Bats are attracted to insects...which may be attracted to the Co2 which you breathe out..

Bats can navigate both visually and acoustically, by sending out sound waves and listening for echoes bouncing off objects—including prey.

Bats' eyes are adapted for both daylight and UV vision. The UV-sensitive cones may yield a number of advantages for bats, including improved visual orientation at twilight, predator avoidance, and detection of UV-reflecting flowers (a benefit for those that feed on nectar).

A typical female vampire bat weighs 40 grams and can consume over 20 grams (1 fluid ounce) of blood in a 20-minute feed.

Vampire bats will share some of the blood with sick bats when they return to roost.

There are 1,232 difference species of bats. Many of them have developed highly specialized food choices. If you were to invite bats of the world on a picnic, what would you want to have on offer?

Largest microbat has a 3ft wing span. The largest megabat has a 6ft wing span.

largest micro bat = 36 inches

largest mega bat = 81 inches

This type of airplane does not have a pressurized cabin. It will fly 10,000 - 15,000 feet. Bats have been known to fly 16,500 feet without a pressurized cabin.

Fringe-lipped bats eat frogs even though gulping the wrong one in the dark could be fatal.

New high-speed video of the tropical bats swooping toward various frogs and toads shows that the predators deploy a sequence of senses to update their judgment of prey during an attack to avoid eating a toxic amphibian.  fringe-lipped bats turned aside in mid-air if researchers broadcast enticing túngara calls but offered up a cane toad (Rhinella marina), which is way too big for a bat to carry off. New tests also revealed that playing túngara calls while offering a right-sized but toxic leaf litter toad (Rhinella alata) led bats to catch and then drop the unpleasant prey.

The Kitti’s hog-nosed bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai), sometimes referred to as the bumblebee bat due to its diminutive size, was discovered in 1970s and could arguably be the world’s smallest mammal, depending on how size is defined.

C. thonglongyai is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN and is found in western Thailand and southeast Burma, in limestone caves along rivers. The principal threats to the insectivorous bat are habitat degradation and the disturbance of roosting sites.

Bats are mammals. When baby bats are born at 25 to 40% of their mother’s size, they soon begin feeding. Some male bats can produce milk. The lactating males are Dayak fruit bats (Dyacopterusspadiceus), a little-known, small flying fox of Malaysia and Borneo.

Some mother bats fly with their babies. Baby bats hang on with hooked milk teeth.

Tens of thousands of bats are being killed at wind farms in the eastern United States each year in collisions with the spinning turbine blades and from related causes. Nationwide, confirmed bat kills include 12 of the United States' 46 bat species. Little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) are common wind-power victims, almost 25 percent of bat kills at some sites – and also the hardest hit by White-nose Syndrome. Reducing wind-power mortality becomes especially urgent among bat populations that are being simultaneously devastated by WNS.

Studies at Mountaineer and at Pennsylvania sites showed that bats were most often killed during migratory periods and on nights when wind speeds were low. (Subsequent research finds that roughly 85 percent of bat deaths occur during the fall migration from late July through mid-October.) This led BWEC scientists five years ago to propose a test of the hypothesis that curtailment – shutting down wind turbines during low-wind periods at night – could reduce the number of bat fatalities. During such periods, relatively little electricity was being produced, which minimizes the costs of curtailment.

Most bats produce echolocation sounds by contracting their larynx (voice box). A few species, though, click their tongues. These sounds are generally emitted through the mouth, but Horseshoe bats(Rhinolophidae) and Old World leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) emit their echolocation calls through their nostrils: there they have basal fleshy horseshoe or leaf-like structures that are well-adapted to function as megaphones.

Vampire bats use infrared radiation to locate blood hotspots on their prey. Vampire bats use a receptor found in all mammals, which we use to sense heat on our skin and to sense capsaicin, the "heat" factor in chili peppers. The bat's receptor is modified to be able to detect much lower levels of heat, around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) from about 8 inches (20 centimeters) away.

Our heat sensors are tripped at around 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) and in all but the most extreme cases (say, a burner on a stove) we require physical contact to feel heat from an object.

Bats encountering supercell thunderstorm with hook echo indicative of tornado. Del Rio, Texas. March 19, 2006. The hook echo is one of the classical hallmarks of tornado-producing supercell thunderstorms as seen on a weather radar. The echo is produced by rain, hail, or even debris being wrapped around the supercell. The National Weather Service considers the presence of a hook echo as sufficient to justify issuing a tornado warning. A supercell is a thunderstorm that is characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, continuously-rotating updraft. For this reason, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell), supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms, and can dominate the local climate up to 20 miles away. Supercells can occur anywhere in the world under the right pre-existing weather conditions, but they are most common in the Great Plains of the United States.

The black and gold bat has been the trademark and logo of Bacardi Limited since February 4th 1862, where Don Facundo Bacardí Massó originated Bacardi rum. The story of the bat symbol began in Santiago de Cuba, where the founder of Bacardi began experimenting with the distillation of rum. He wanted to supply his rums beyond his friends and family, so he purchased a small tin-roofed distiller for the price of 3,500 pesos ($287.40 CAD). When Don Facundo and his wife entered the distillery, his wife noticed a colony of fruit bags hanging from the rafters.  Still in search of an identifiable emblem, Don Facundo decided to use a bat as his trademark for his new rum.  The bat was a symbol for good heath, fortune, and family unity.  Bacardi rum later became known as “el Ron del Murcielago” or rum of the bat.