UTICA, N.Y. — Although they can be perceived as scary little creatures, there is a week dedicated to raising awareness of the critical role of bats in the environment.

Oct. 24 through Oct. 31 is Bat Week. 

A bat’s main ecosystem service is insect pest control. Some bats, depending on their diets, can help with seed dispersal and plant pollination. 

That, according to Bat Conservation International. 

The website behind Bat Week states that “a single bat can eat up to its body weight in insects each night.”

This, in turn, helps “protect our food crops and forests from insect pests, saving farmers and forest managers billions of dollars each year,” according to the website.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, “70% of bats worldwide, and all of New York’s bats, consume flying insects.”

The state DEC is also encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to refrain from visiting caves and mines during the fall and winter months. 

“Bats spend the winter hibernating in these underground cavities, where relatively constant, warm temperatures protect these mammals from harsh winter temperatures above ground. Bats’ health is particularly vulnerable to human visitation in the winter to these “hibernacula” and especially harmful since the arrival of white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has killed more than 90 percent of bats at hibernation sites in the state,” the DEC states. 

Also, bats in New York breed primarily in the fall. 

“Each fall, as temperatures drop and insect numbers decline, bats respond by either hibernating or migrating. Come spring, generally around mid-April, they begin to return from their wintering sites,” the DEC states. 

State DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said that with bats circling around us this Halloween, it reminds us to do our part to protect the flying mammals. 

“DEC is encouraging New Yorkers to help protect bats by avoiding caves or mines to prevent any unintentional harm to bats and safeguarding their habitats,” Seggos said. 

There are two bat species that are currently protected under federal and State endangered species law. 

“The Indiana bat, which is sparsely distributed across New York, is a federally endangered bat listed before white-nose syndrome later began affecting bat populations. The northern long-eared bat is also listed as an endangered species under federal and New York State law. The current population for this formerly common bat is approximately one percent of its previous size, making this species the most severely affected by white-nose syndrome. Still, northern long-eared bats are widely distributed in New York and their presence has been documented in most of the state’s approximately 100 caves and mines serving as bat hibernation sites,” the DEC stated. 

The environmental organization also went on to say that anyone who enters a northern long-eared bat hibernation site from Oct. 1 through April 30, may be subject to prosecution.

For more information on Bat Week, click here.