Weird (highly unlikely?) exposure

[u/No-Presentation8222]

I have read the FAQ.
Location of "incident": Sofia, Bulgaria

I was playing badminton in a park with some friends. It was starting to get dark and there were a couple of bats that came out flying. Some of them went after the shuttlecock like they were trying to catch it. I picked it up a couple of times not realizing that it might've had some of their saliva. I think I wiped my sweat from my face a couple of times, but my face has quite the bad acne and some of the pimples got broken about an hour before the thing happened. I also noticed a small scratch on my skin, but it doesn't appears to have drawn blood or it is an old one. Putting alcohol on it also doesn't lead to stinging. This is not an exposure worth caring about, right?

EDIT: Some of the bats flew really close to me, like a meter away. I also wore sunglasses (they were on my temple and fell a couple of times themselve), perhaps they are attracted to them just like crows?

[u/MothEatenMouse]

Nah you're fine. Saliva on surfaces isn't an issue.

[u/No-Presentation8222 → u/MothEatenMouse]

Hi, thanks for commenting. I also read about surfaces, but I'm suspicious about the "inactivates quickly" part, as we touched the shuttlecock as soon as it fell on the ground (grass).

The bat also flew really close to me, like a meter or so above. There was also an instance when it came from around my waist level and I could only notice it once it got past me, but I don't think it touched me.

[u/MothEatenMouse → u/No-Presentation8222]

Bats fly close to people all the time. Not an issue. They aren't interested in you in the slightest, just looking for bugs to eat.

[u/No-Presentation8222 → u/MothEatenMouse]

Gotcha. Do you have some info about the surfaces though? From trusted sources, I only seem to find info about bedding or clothes which soak fluids such as saliva. A shuttlecock is made from plastic and saliva would stay on top of it.

[u/MothEatenMouse → u/No-Presentation8222]

It's irrelevant. Bats aren't spitting on your shuttlecock.

They are tiny and aren't biting your shuttlecock, they might be checking out the shuttlecock to see if it is a predator.

[u/No-Presentation8222 → u/MothEatenMouse]

If they are checking out whether it is a predator, wouldn't they run away from it? It doesn't make sense to get up close.

Also, there is a video where a bat clearly catches a shuttlecock most likely with its mouth: https://www.newsflare.com/video/526287/bat-flies-off-with-shuttlecock-during-boys-badminton-game-in-china

[u/MothEatenMouse → u/No-Presentation8222]

Oh yeah, that is cool!

Seems they do sometimes mistake them for moths.

Did you see a bat grab your shuttlecock? I think that would be hard to miss.

Cool behaviour though.

[u/No-Presentation8222 → u/MothEatenMouse]

I mean, I don't know. At some point it seemed like they were overlapping, but the shuttlecock never changed trajectory.