If you were to drive across the border from, say, Kentucky to Indiana, you'd see a big sign hanging there to welcome you. But bats flying through the sky encounter no such marker -- not that it would make any difference if they did. The flying mammals go wherever they please, and these days as they zip from one state to another, many are carrying with them some seriously dangerous cargo: Geomyces destructans, the fuzz that causes the mysterious white-nose syndrome, has already killed bats in 18 states.

Following the publication earlier this year of a report in the journal Science that estimates the cost of the bat loss to the United States at $22.9 billion a year (mostly through losses from agriculture), the federal government is finally getting serious about the disease. In late May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a plan that comes at the white-nose scourge from several angles -- from communicating the importance of bats to the general public and stopping the spread of the fuzz to helping affected populations recover from heavy casualties.

Previously, individual states were left to fend for themselves. Most came up with management plans entailing cave closures and heightened disinfection policies at cave entrances. (Even states without white-nose, like Michigan and New Mexico, have come up with plans to try to keep the fungus from reaching their borders.) So far, nothing has worked, and the fuzz has marched across the country from New York, where it was discovered, south to North Carolina and west to Kentucky. It’s also moved north, affecting bats in four Canadian provinces. The mortality rate in many caves is as high as 95 percent within two years of infection.

There’s still a lot we don't know about the fungus. Why does it affect some bat species and not others, for example? How does it spread? How does it kill the bats in the first place? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we stop it? But with billions of dollars and the nation’s food supply at stake, the government no longer intends to sit around and wait for answers. We know how diseases spread more generally, the Science report says, and the government can use that information to formulate a preliminary plan. Federal involvement in the issue could also mean more money for research -- something scientists will tell you is sorely needed.

Image via Marvin Moriarty/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service