Bats Landing
OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. is pleased to promote and be associated with the efforts of Bat’s Landing, a nonprofit sanctuary for bats licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife.
The following story is from the Tulsa World, published 12/22/2008.
Wallace, known to her neighbors as the “Bat Whisperer,” spends the majority of her days and nights feeding, nurturing and caring for the nocturnal mammals, hoping to reintroduce them to their
Mrs. Beverly Wallace of Bats Landing in Sapulpa, OK shown with a Hoary Bat.
natural habitat.
At her rural home between Sapulpa and Glenpool, Wallace runs Bat’s Landing, a nonprofit sanctuary for bats licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife.
Wallace became interested in bats about seven years ago when her neighborhood was suffering a mosquito problem. “The neighbors were complaining about the mosquitoes, and so were we. I had this crazy notion that if I started raising bats, that they would stay here and I could raise a colony,” she said. “As time went on, I found that not to be true. Just because I hand-raised them, that they weren’t going to stay. Bats do what they want to do; they go where they want to go, not where you want them to go.”
Raising the first few bats remained in Wallace’s blood. She decided to learn more about the mammals when she took part in a “bat boot camp” at Bat World, a bat rehabilitation center in Mineral Wells, Texas.
“It’s been a blessing to me to raise them and watch them grow, then able to release them. I’ve had quite good success at releasing a large number of pups, or baby bats,” she said. “I’ve devoted my life to this.”
When Wallace receives calls about an injured or displaced bat, she’ll go get the mammal and bring it back to her little shop to be rehabilitated. She’s also removed bats that have found their way inside homes. She responds to calls from throughout the Tulsa area.
The "Bats Landing" Treatment room or Workshop where Beverly rehabilitates the bats.
“A lot of times the poor little guys find themselves in positions, or in places, where they shouldn’t be and they might have hunted throughout the night and stopped to rest and then it cools down and there they are,” she said. Bats aren’t the only animals Wallace has nursed back to health. She’s worked with wildlife since she was a child, including armadillos, birds, squirrels, opossums and raccoons. At one point, she and her husband, Weldon, had 13 raccoons.
Wallace is currently rehabilitating several bat species, including a Hoary bat, the most widespread of bats in the United States. Wallace also has four big brown bats, four little red bats and an evening bat in her workshop.
During the summer months, she can have as many as 50 or 60 pups in her care, feeding them meal-worms and insects.
As far as rabies, Wallace said that only one-half of 1 percent of all bats carry the disease, and usually those with rabies will crawl off and die without infecting other animals or people.
“Now should a human pick one up that is rabid, of course they’re going to be bitten because the bat would be afraid, just like any kind of animal. But bats are not to be any more feared than a raccoon or a skunk,” she said. “As long as people just leave the bats where they belong and don’t interfere, they’ll be OK.”
The Bat Barn at Bats Landing of Sapulpa, Oklahoma
Wallace said she has been bitten, but she makes sure to wear gloves and use her common sense.
She suggests that a person who comes upon a bat that could be displaced or possibly hurt should call either a veterinarian or someone who might be able to rehabilitate the animal.
To contact Bat’s Landing, call Beverly Wallace at 
227-1227 or email Bats Landing here. Thank you.
