BATTY OLD WIVES TALES
THE LONGEST LIST OF THE LONGEST STUFF AT THE LONGEST DOMAIN NAME AT LONG LAST

While most people know that bats are not actually vampires in another form, there are still a few old wives’ tales floating around about bats that are just simply not true. The two most commonly known old wives tales surrounding bats are that they are blind, and that they will get tangled up in your hair.

Where the idea came from that bats are blind is unknown. But it may very well be that someone just thought “blind as a bat” sounded good and flowed smoothly. Or it may be the fact that some clever person picked up on the fact that bats use echolocation to find one another. Echolocation is the process of speaking (or in a bat’s case, crying) so that the sound may echo off its surroundings and reach another location. When bats interact this way, they can communicate with each other, even when they’re across a great distance.

But while this echolocation is handy for bats, it certainly doesn’t mean that they’re blind in any way. In fact, bats are known to have very good eyesight, and they use that in combination with their echolocation abilities.

Another very common old wives’ tale regarding bats is the theory that they will become tangled in a person’s hair. This is usually in places where bats are quite common and can be seen quite often. This thought comes from the fact that bats do tend to stay in high places, so they can sleep and watch down over their prey. However as people walk, they stir up many of the insects and other creatures in the air and the environment. This makes all of these critters readily available for bats that happen to be hanging nearby and they may swoop down to collect their dinner. However, bats are not interested in the humans that stirred up their food for them, and they certainly have no interest in their hair!