The Chewonki Foundation's Keith Crowley knows some people picture bats as mice with wings. But they're far from rodents, and also far from a lot of other myths that dog them.

For one, they are not blind. In fact, they can see about well as humans, Crowley told the Wiscasset Garden Club January 9.

But bats don't carry flashlights, he said, so if they're out hunting mosquitoes or other insects at night, they get around using sonar. Bats send out high-frequency sounds that hit an object and then echo back.

They don't flap their wings up and down like a bird does; they rotate them like a swimmer.

Some bat species are most closely related to primates, Crowley said.

“I enjoy being around all animals, but I've always thought bats were among the coolest,” he said.

But they've also been misunderstood, which can be hazardous for them. Mango farmers used to kill ones that ate their fruit, Crowley said. But the bats were only eating ripe ones, he said, the ones the farmers wouldn't have picked for sale because they wouldn't ship as well.

Bats' pest-eating helps farmers, Crowley said. Also, bats' “guano” droppings make great fertilizer, he told the roomful of gardeners inside the First Congregational Church's fellowship hall.

Bats have also run into human trouble by coming into buildings. If they're getting in regularly, Crowley said to try going outdoors about 15 minutes before dark. Watch for where they exit the building to go out and feed. Then block up those spaces.

What if you find yourself in a room with one? Crowley's recommendation surprised some audience members. He suggested staying in the room, closing the doors, turning on the lights and opening a window. Maybe play some music, too.

The idea is to make the space less desirable for the bat than the world he knows, outside the window.

If you leave the room, you won't know if he left. The small size of many species of bats can make them hard to find. Even Chewonki's resident bat, August (named for the month the organization received him), went missing shortly after his arrival.

He turned up near the box turtles.

August picked up a neck injury when he lived in the wild; he was turned in to a Lewiston wildlife rehabilitator before he came to Chewonki. He can't fly well enough to ever be released, but he does leave the grounds in a Jetta the organization calls the “batmobile,” going with Crowley, director of Chewonki's traveling natural history programs, on talks to educate the public.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that all bats are vampire bats, Crowley said. Only a few of the 1,100 bat species, and none of Maine's eight species, are vampire bats. Those are all in Central and South America, where they take two or three tablespoons of blood from livestock that sometimes don't even notice, he said.

Like any wild animal, bats aren't for handling. They don't pose anywhere near the rabies risk they get labeled with, however, Crowley said. Only about one-half of one percent of bats will get rabies.

Maine does appear to have lost some bats to a fungus, white-nose syndrome, suspected to have come over from Europe on cavers' clothing, Crowley said. Scientists believe it may force hibernating bats awake every three or four days by irritating their skin. The repeated waking when their heart rates are slow and their body temperatures low may be what kills them, Crowley said.

The surviving bats may be growing into a hardier stock, he said. But bats usually have just one pup a year, so the numbers may take decades to rebound.

Snakes and bird of prey will eat bats. Crowley encourages people to help give bats a safe place to hang out by putting up a bat box, 10 to 15 feet high on a tree. Bats need narrow openings and interiors with a mesh-covered wall to grip.

If you don't see any takers right away, don't get discouraged. A box can be up years before bats start using it.

For more on the boxes and other bat information, Crowley recommends www.batcon.org, the website of the nonprofit Bat Conservation International.

He told the garden club's members it would make his week if he got a card from them sometime next spring, saying they were putting up bat boxes.

Sandy Sarmanian of Edgecomb wasn’t sure she will. But she said she greatly enjoyed the presentation, especially seeing the live bat. “It was wonderful,” she said.