Student Bitten by Bat in Texas A&M
University Library
Officials at Texas A&M University in College Station closed off the main library’s sixth floor and sections of the fifth floor October 18, the day after a student was bitten by one of the hundreds of migratory bats that recently took up residence in the building. The student, who was bitten by a bat that crawled into one of her shoes she’d slipped off while studying, received precautionary rabies shots until test results on the bat proved negative for the disease.
Workers have captured nearly 400 of the Mexican free-tailed bats that have infested the library over a period of a few weeks, the Bryan-College Station Eagle reported October 19. Colleen Cook, executive associate dean of libraries, said not all the bats had been captured, but the number was “definitely diminishing.”
Apparently most of the bats entered through cracks in the building’s façade, Cook said. Employees have been working at night, when the bats leave the building to hunt for insects, to seal points of entry.
Posted October 23, 2000.
|
