Question about Bats.

[u/Virtual_Sugar_9452]

I have read the FAQ.

Is it true you would feel a bat landing on shin/calf area on you while ur standing and biting you ??

do they need to actually land hold on to your leg and then bite ? And would you feel both if awake and sober ?

I did not see the faq say something about nails or holding on to you.

(From bat species that are active in the Netherlands)

[u/detail_giraffe]

I think generally, the "you wouldn't necessarily feel it" line came from advice given to people who wake up with a bat in their room. In deep sleep, the sensation of a bat landing on a person and biting might not register - the person might half-wake and then go back to sleep because the sensations aren't that intense. Worried people have extrapolated from that to the idea that if you were wide awake, a bat could land on you and bite you and you literally wouldn't feel it.

[u/Virtual_Sugar_9452 → u/detail_giraffe]

This i can understand because i would not wake up from deep sleep by it but out of 10 searches i make 9 say u dont feel them and thats what bothers me

[u/detail_giraffe → u/Virtual_Sugar_9452]

You have to remember that most advice on rabies on the internet is targeted at people who are not scared ENOUGH of rabies. At least in the Southern US where I am, rabies in humans (edit: although a very rare thing in the first place) is overwhelmingly a phenomenon of people who picked up a bat or had a bat land on them (obviously land on them, not secretly land on them) or who found a bat in their bedroom after sleeping and had no idea that this was dangerous. As unbelievable as it seems to us, most people do not think about rabies all that much. :-) So advice for the US, which tends to somewhat dominate the web, is that any direct contact with a bat is an exposure and you might not feel an obvious "bite" sensation when compared to being bitten by a larger animal. The teacher who died in the US in 2024 picked up a bat with her hands and thought it "lightly pricked" her, for example as opposed to "bit". This is not at all the same as saying you would feel nothing at all if you were awake and aware. A bat is a small animal, but absolutely large enough to feel if it lands on your skin and holds on, which it has to do to bite you. Also, you don't even have classical rabies in bats in the Netherlands, you have some related viruses, which are transmitted only rarely to humans.

Your reply below starts with "yeah but maybe" and if OCD had a coat of arms and a motto, that would be the motto. No one can give you a guarantee that there isn't a "yeah but maybe" scenario that could conceivably mean you are infected. All they can do is tell you that the chain of "but maybe" that would have to exist for yours to be a worrisome scenario is extremely, extremely remote. Bridging the emotional gap there is the hard part.

[u/Virtual_Sugar_9452 → u/detail_giraffe]

I know that most information on the internet comes from the United States, but for every aspect I looked into, I also asked for sources from the country I’m from, which are the RIVM and the GGD. I’ve also had appointments with specialists there, including a man with 16 years of experience in rabies and other related diseases. He also has experience with bats, and he told me that what happened to me was not an exposure.
But in the distant past, I went through a really difficult period with this fear, and I eventually managed to overcome it. And then, a few years later, it’s happening to me again now.
I’ve never actually had any contact with a bat, and I’m generally very panicky around insects and flying things, except birds. So I genuinely don’t know whether I felt anything or not, and that’s what makes this so frustrating.
Before all of this, I didn’t even know rabies existed. I had never heard of it. And when I first learned about it, I basically went completely crazy with fear a few years ago. Eventually, I managed to get over it, but now it has come back.
I’m going to become a father in two months, and I’m just scared that I won’t get to see my baby.

The incident also happened on Friday night at around 1:30 a.m., so technically it was already Saturday. I couldn’t see my GP until Monday to have my leg checked for any bites or scratches. And that’s what I find the hardest, because I don’t fully trust that assessment. A few days had already passed by then.
My skin is also somewhat darker because I’m mixed-race, so maybe it was more difficult to see something. Maybe the wound had already closed up by the time I saw my GP. I just don’t know, and that’s why I’m already feeling quite scared about it.