Saskatchewan expert busts common myths about bats

Despite the drawn-out winter weather that refuses to leave Saskatchewan this April, spring weather will eventually return to the province, bringing some winged friends back to the province or out of hibernation.

With spring and summer renovations on the horizon — and homeowners being warned that bats might soon make a return to cozy home crevices — Mark Brigham, a professor of biology at the University of Regina, joined The Evan Bray Show this week to bust some batty myths and share the best ways to manage the seasonal tenants.

He came dressed for the occasion, wearing a bat-patterned shirt in the studio, which was made for him by his wife.

Read more:

• More bat encounters raise rabies concerns in Saskatoon
• Environment ministry offers tips on dealing with bats, as encounters increase
• Health officials warn more people are being bitten by bats across Sask.

Listen to the full interview, or read the transcript below:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: Is springtime a time when we normally will discover the bats that have maybe taken roost?

MARK BRIGHAM: Bats use buildings in Saskatchewan in two different seasons. Groups of females will be in the attics of many buildings where it’s hot in the summertime to give birth to their pups. They don’t allow males; it’s only girls.

In the wintertime, a couple of species of bats that we have will hibernate in buildings. That tends to be in the walls — way below ground where it is cold, but not freezing — so somewhere around the May 24 weekend, typically, is when the transition between those two things happens.

In my experience, it’s rare that the same individuals use the same building to do both things. They either hibernate in a building or they use it as a maternity colony, the females. In both cases, but especially the maternity colonies, they tend to be in older buildings where there’s more cracked crevices and access points.

BRAY: I had always thought bats lived in trees. Is that true?

BRIGHAM: The vast majority of species live in tree cavities. But in Regina, we’re in the middle of a place where there aren’t many trees except for what the city’s planted. Most of those are conifers, spruce trees, which don’t form cavities particularly well, so there aren’t options. So bats are actually here in large numbers because of the buildings that we’ve built. We’ve provided them with places to live.

BRAY: What is the benefit of having bats?

BRIGHAM: They eat huge numbers of insects. I weigh 200 or so pounds, and if I was to eat as much every day, I would go to McDonald’s and have 800 quarter pounders every single day. They eat their own body mass in flying insects every day. And when females are suckling their young, they’ll eat one-and-a-half times their body mass every day.

So that translates into thousands of insects, many of whom we’re not particularly fond of. Have to say, they probably don’t eat too many mosquitoes, because most mosquitoes don’t spend a lot of time flying and the bats we have will only eat flying insects, because it’s really hard to detect things sitting on the ground. But they will eat lots and lots.

BRAY: Do we have lots of types of bats?

BRIGHAM: There are about 22 different species recorded for Canada.

We have eight of them in Saskatchewan, which are found across most of the province. The smallest bat we have is called the western small-footed bat. It weighs four grams, which is the same mass as a nickel. And the biggest one we have is called the hoary bat, which migrates to Mexico for the winter, weighs about 25 grams, which is four loonies in your hand. So all of our bats are small.

We have a few species, but the farther south you go, like most animals, the more different species you find.

BRAY: What is the biggest mistake that people make when they discover they have maybe a bat in their attic?

BRIGHAM: The biggest mistake people make is thinking that it’s dangerous. It’s not dangerous.

First of all, bats will not make the holes or cause any damage to the house. They’re not like mice or squirrels or raccoons that will chew their way in. They can’t do that. It would be like you and I trying to chew our way through drywall. We can’t do it. They don’t have the teeth for that.

They’re only there as a place to shelter, and they’re not doing any damage. Frankly, if you leave them alone, they don’t cause any issue. However, understand they’re not paying rent. They’re like your teenage kids. You would like them out. So the best way to do that, and really the only safe way to do that, is to build them out. And that can cause some issues.

There are new rules and regulations in the province. You’re not allowed to do it during the period of time that females have pups that are dependent on them, and you wouldn’t want to do it anyway, because what will mothers do if you seal them away from their pups? They’ll fly in your front door to try to get at them.

So you can’t seal when mothers are having their pups, usually about the first of July until the middle of August, but the rest of the time, you wait for the bats to leave and you plug the holes that they’re using. However, just like us, they have safety policies. They have to have more than one entrance and exit, so it may take some time to learn all the holes that are in your house that have to be sealed. It can be a hard process.

Mark Brigham, biology professor at the University of Regina, joined Evan Bray on April 22, 2026 to answer questions on the show about bats in Saskatchewan. He wore a bat-themed shirt, made for him by his wife, during the interview. (The Evan Bray Show/Facebook)

BRAY: That can’t be easy, because I’m guessing the hole that they need to get in is probably like a mouse that can get in a pretty tight spot.

BRIGHAM: Even tighter than mice. Less than a quarter of an inch wide is all they need to get through. So yes, it’s not an easy thing to do, but no amount of mothballs, smoke, poisons, anything like that, will fix the problem over the long term, because these animals can live for 25 to 30 years.

I know places that bats have been in attics for many, many decades. So it is a challenge, no doubt about it. In my opinion, you need to talk to someone who knows what they’re doing. (An) individual called the Critter Gitter in Lumsden is the person that I know that knows how to deal with bats but also has bats’ interests at heart.

BRAY: I’ve heard about these one-way exits. Are they quite commonly available?

BRIGHAM: Most of them are homemade. Most of them are basically just a flap of plastic that the bat can squeeze its way out, and then it closes and it can’t get back in. But that doesn’t solve the problem of other entrances that you might know about and they can use.

If they get frustrated with one entrance, they will use another. And  my experience is that there usually are multiple, because these things don’t want to get caught in some place where they can’t get out of.

BRAY: Is it where there’s one bat, there’s going to be many? Or is it possible that you might just have one in your attic?

BRIGHAM: There are two common species that use buildings in Saskatchewan. They have the boring names, little brown bat and big brown bat. They both typically live in groups.

Little browns are usually in larger numbers, up to a few hundred. Big browns, usually a few tens. But it is unlikely inside you’re going to have less than a few individuals – and that’s in the summertime. All females that give birth, almost always, to a single pup.

In terms of hibernation, numbers tend to be a little lower, but it’s much harder to get at, so we don’t know nearly as much about it. Probably lower numbers. Little browns don’t hibernate in buildings, only big browns do.

BRAY: Are bats on the endangered species list?

BRIGHAM: The little brown bat, in Saskatchewan, is on the endangered species list as of about 10 years ago because of an imported fungal disease that came from Europe to near Albany, New York, by accident on the clothing of some people who like to be in caves, and it has killed tens of millions of that particular species.

It used to be the most common bat in North America. Numbers are declining, especially in eastern North America, but the disease is here and we expect declines to happen here as well.

BRAY: When you see them while sitting in your backyard is there a risk of getting bit?

BRIGHAM: No, absolutely no risk whatsoever.

BRAY: Why do we think there is?

BRIGHAM: Because they often fly near us. The reason for that is that even in the summertime we lose the vast majority of our body heat through the top of our head, and heat attracts insects. What are these guys eating? Insects. So you’re McDonald’s on wheels. They’re gonna fly close to you.

They fly close to you to catch the insects, but they have no interest in you. The only way you get bitten is if you pick them up. So if you see a bat on the ground or doing something that’s strange, don’t try to pick it up, because to eat insects you have to have very sharp teeth with very strong jaws, and the bite hurts, and it will break your skin.

In the rare instance that they’re ill, yes, a disease could be transmitted. But in the barbecue situation, sit and enjoy it, and the number of insects that will bother you will be lower.

BRAY: Rabies is something that’s often associated with bats. Is it more common in bats than it is in other animals like dogs?

BRIGHAM: Very rare in dogs in this part of the world, because we vaccinate them. Skunks, foxes and raccoons are probably the animals in the wild that are most commonly found with rabies, and they can have the virus, which they can pass on for periods of time without getting ill.

When bats get the virus, they get sick really quite quickly and they die, but in that period, yes, if you pick one up and it has the virus in its saliva, it can pass it on. Rabies is a horrible disease. We don’t want anyone to get afflicted with it, because you’re going to die.

But it’s also the disease against which we have absolutely the best vaccination that there is. Five little needles in the arm — not shots in the stomach, which stopped 60, years ago — and you will never get rabies, and it won’t be a problem. But you have to do it reasonably quickly, within days after being bitten.

BRAY: If you see a bat on your property that seems to be acting weird, should you notify someone?

BRIGHAM: At the risk of causing myself some grief, call me at the university and I will happily at least talk to you about it. But the only place that you really have to worry is if you have a bat crawling on the ground.

If it’s in your umbrella in the backyard, it’s a male that’s been told by the girls, “No, you can’t come in here to our maternity colony.” They live by themselves in the summer.

If it’s on your wall, it’s just hung up for the day. Leave it alone. If it’s there for a whole bunch of days, yes, you can get in touch, and I’ll certainly talk to you about it. But it really isn’t a risk.

BRAY: What would the consequence be if we had no bats?

BRIGHAM: If we had no bats at all, you would not have bananas. We would not have tequila. Kapok, which we use in life preservers, would not exist in North America. The number of nocturnal insects would go through the roof.

There’s been an estimate that the cotton industry in Texas would have to spend $10 billion more on pesticides if bats weren’t eating all the moths that ate cotton in Texas. So they do us a lot of good. All they want is just to be left alone.

BRAY: Where does your interest in this come from?

BRIGHAM: I always loved underdogs. I’m a Leafs fan. So when I was exposed to bats, I thought they’re very cool. They’ve got lots of secrets to give up, and most people don’t like them.

I like spiders. I think snakes are cool, I like sharks — all those animals that people don’t like deserve a whole lot more of our goodwill.