To those of you who think bats are icky and are not necessary in the world, just consider this: one gray bat can eat 3,000 insects in one night. If there is a colony of 100,000 bats, the colony could eat 300 million insects every night! That's fantastic news for anyone who hates mosquitos and garden pests. But on a larger scale, think of how bats can help control pests that can seriously damage commercial crops. Bats help keep extremely destructive insect populations in check, helping farmers earn a living. In some areas of the country, farmers have actually attracted bats to their fields on purpose by building "bat condos" to cut down on the use of pesticides. Some organic farms actually rely on bats as part of their plan to use no pesticides at all.
August 29, 2006
Studying the Gray Bat; Erudition #16
Jen has a great neat post about gray bats over at SBES:
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In Texas, bats are big tourist attractions. We have Mexican free tailed bats and Brazilian bats.
ReplyDeleteWe have massive caverns were they stay during the winter.
Bats can be a problem, too. Last month, they started taking over parking garages and the outsie of some office buildings in San Antonio.
They will be leaving soon for their southern homes.
You might want to mention that a small number of bats carry rabies and should NEVER be picked up, touched or held.