The bats are weighed and measured and assigned Taxpayer Identification Numbers, then released back into the night sky. The persistent fear of bats getting caught in people's hair has more to do with the proliferation of paranoid people with big country-western hair than to any known proclivities of bats. Bats, like nurses, are taken for granted by most of us until we need one. A single bat, using nonlicensed copies of sonar locating software, can catch and eat up to 1,200 insects in a single hour. Saving roost sites is critical to saving bats.
Most colonies live in caves, mines and attics.
In one recent case, a colony of 150 Townsend's bats was found squatting in an old homestead cabin in Spokane County. Plans to remodel the cabin were belayed by bat fans, who helped the owner build a new guest cabin elsewhere. Better yet, Web cameras have been installed in the old one to view the bats in the summer. The noise you hear when you disturb a nursery colony is the female bats complaining about male bats hogging the remote control. Some Washington bats are as small as your thumb and live up to 30 years.