Texans are used to putting up with the consequences of notoriously hot summers, but if researchers’ predictions are correct, then record drought and wildfires won’t be the only hazards residents of the Lone Star State will have to contend with in the future.

Vampire bats may be on the way.

Once only seen in the U.S. in horror films, vampire bats are expanding their range in Mexico as a result of climate change, and computer models indicate they could become year-round Texas residents within 50 years. For Ivan Castro-Arellano, a biologist and wildlife disease expert in the Department of Biology at Texas State University-San Marcos, the concern is that Texas’ increasingly warmer winters might allow the damaging pest to expand into the state well ahead of schedule. Castro-Arellano is one of more than 40 scientists throughout the Texas State University System working through the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species in Huntsville to study and develop strategies to deal with invasive species across the state.

To read more check out the San Marcos Mercury