Most Missouri bats hunt their food at night when the insects are most active. Bats are thought of to be blind but that is not true. Some of them can see as well as humans. To find their food, bats send out ultrasonic waves that bounce back to the bat's ears and allow him to identify the objects in the darkness. They are usually harmless, but some of them may carry rabies.
Bats produce a manure called guano.
The bat guano is an important source of food for other creatures that live in the cave. If bats would disappear, the food chain would be broken and the cave life might disappear. Guano has been used for gunpowder and fertilizer. This means that people have mined it. When you spray pesticides on your plants to kill insects, you might be killing bats.