It's October, which means that bats are once again having their annual star turn, popping up on classroom bulletin boards and store windows across America. But this year, actual living bats in North America aren't so abundant. They are being decimated by a deadly health epidemic.

White-nose syndrome has an extremely high mortality rate — more than 95% of the infected bats at some sites in the Northeast have died

 bats are rarely given credit for what they excel at: insect pest control.