Bats Brought In To Battle Mosquitos

I will concede that I do not know about the bats in your area - maybe in the US and Mexico. But I do know about ones in mine. Here the bats do help with mosquito control, I would not say it is going to put a dent in the population. Little brown bats which live where I am eat A LOT of mosquitos. I would bring them in just as I attract lady bugs into my garden as pest control.

There are not a lot of juried studies out there. Certainly not enough of different bat populations on different mosquito populations. I've seen the web sites you referred to in the past. I have seen them all cite the same org saying that there is not anecdotal evidence that bats, etcc, etc control the mosquito pops. I haven ot seen a journeled published article saying that they undesputably don't. I am not deluded, I am hopeful. I am hopeful that they will put money into researching biological controls and fearful that it will just be easier to start spraying - which many many cities have already started doing. We're never going to combat mosquitos - if we could there would be no malaria. Misinformation goes both ways - just as there is not hard scientific evidence that bats and martens don't control mosquito populations, there is not hard evidence that they have no affect. When I see articles publised citing real population ecology studies that say bats and martens definitely have no effect - maybe I will stop being "deluded".

I will call Austin a city. I am well travelled and very well educated in the sciences (Biology and chemistry). I have not been there but my husband has. It is a city. Compared to the places I spend my time where there are NO people and lots of wildlife and still untouched forest, it is a city.

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misinformation.

Reply to
Tina Gibson
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Reply to
Tina Gibson

My apologies - I did put words in your mouth. I am glad that where I live the risk of both is extremely small. We ahve to worry more about rabid stinky skunks!!

deaths

Reply to
Tina Gibson

Yes, and that has been honored as being a good thing to do. However, it is also good to point out they possibly won't get the results they are seeking. None of what I said was meant with mean spirit. Just factual.

The benefits are not substantial. That's the point. Bats do not eat as many mosquitoes as they are rumored to eat. You can't say it's substantial if it's not so.

Reply to
animaux

Insects are not mammals, but you know that. In cold climates there aren't insects which remain alive through the winter. I don't know where in Canada you are, but doesn't it get cold in most of the country in winter?

They insects which survive all winter in Texas USDA Zone 8b are primarily beneficial. Green lacewings are everywhere all winter till the summer heat arrives. Some moths. I've never once seen a mosquito in winter.

Are you >I said most insects are gone to hide in the bush - and I obviously know that

Reply to
animaux

Five minutes in either direction from dead center of town in Austin is open country in the blackland prairie, hill country, Edwards Plateau, tall grass prairie. Four regions meet directly in the center of town. The population is half a million, with a lot of those being students at one or more of the major Universities.

This is a rural city.

Purple martins (with an i) have not made any difference in population. There have been studies and the most viable biological control is to remove habitat and where impossible, to treat with Bt-Israelensis aka mosquito dunks. The other viable, biological control is mosquito larvae eating fish.

I truly hope the bats help...West Nile and all. I have a parrot and I can't bring her outside because of this deadly disease. We have a bat house which probably has about 250 bats in it. No dent in mosquitoes.

Reply to
animaux

If you want to attract bats faster to a bat house, hand a sock filled with guano near it. That's what we did. Apparently the Eagle Scouts and Boy Scouts did this experiment and it works.

Every winter when most of the bats migrate back to Mexico I go with a mask and shovel up a lot of guano from under the bridge where they dwell. I throw it in the compost pile. Of course I wear gloves, hat and a mask so not to breath the guano dust. I've seen a small five pound bag of guano sell for 8 dollars. I get tons of the stuff for free.

Many municipalities are now building bridges with similar design as those in Texas which have given the bats habitat. They are doing this all over the country. Bats are extremely beneficial and I hope it works the way you'd like it to.

Victoria

Reply to
animaux

I've heard guano makes wonderful compost. An anthro prof I once had did a lot of excavation in Baja - found burials in caves. First they had to send in the guano cleaners!! He went on and on about archeologists who had gotten very sick from excavating cave burials in the past. This always sticks in my head.

I'm not really putting up bat houses this year thinking they're going to irradicate the mosq pop. This just ain;t going to happen. I would just like to see us right some of the wrongs we have done by cutting down so many of their breeding/summer areas. Tina

Reply to
Tina Gibson

Too bad about your parrot - sad when birds have to be restricted so much. I used to have a lot of cockatiels flying around my house. Never had a parrot, always wanted one. Don't hink the cats would like it too much though. So far we are lucky here. The species of mosq that carries west nile is very low in pop here. So far the entymologists in the area that are studying it diligently now do not believe that we are in an area that the virus can run its course. We've had a few dead birds but they believe thje virus was contracted in Southern ONtario. Of course with global warming it is only a matter of time.

environment

Reply to
Tina Gibson

I was not trying to be mean spirited either. I love a good debate and always try to see things in shades of grey. There is no black and white - this has been useful for me - I have learnt something of Austin and how it was overpopulated with bats!!! Cheers, Tina

Reply to
Tina Gibson

I was speaking of hiding in the bush at night in warms months. I think you misunderstood or though that I meant now. Actually though a lot of true flies and other insects do not die in the cold - they somewhat hibernate and oh damn the specific word is eluding me - but they slow down their bodies and either burrow deep or find places in homes to overwinter. On a particularly warm sunny day in late winter you can sometimes see flies flying around in some buildings that they have chose to hide out in. They also hide behind siding, in insulation. Most houses are infested with dormant bugs and the owners are totally oblivious. Yes it gets cold here. Down to -40 in the winters. USDA Zone 2. Some say our 'national bird' is the mosquito. I think it is blackflies. You think mosquitos are pesty - blackflies take chunks out of you that will leave a welted bruise for a week. Animals run out of the bush to escape them in spring - moose deer, bear.. run out onto the road and create havoc for drivers. As a camper and outdoors person all my life I am immune to mosquito bites. AS a kid they drove me nuts - now I don't even notice them. They itch for about 5 minutes and go away. The lower pacific coast (Vancouver, Victoria, Frasier Valley) doesnt get that cold - hovers around 0F. must be something good about that because they get very few mosquitos there!!

I've enjoyed the debate Victoria. All in good spirit. Tina

Reply to
Tina Gibson

You missed the point -- there have been no formal studies showing evidence either way. Trying a biological control is worth the try and the benefits of biological controls over chemical controls are substantial. If the experiment is unsuccessful that will not alter the fact that the benefits of biological controls over chemical controls are substantial -- it just means that in this case, the biological control attempted was unsuccessful.

James

Reply to
JNJ

Here here

Reply to
Tina Gibson

One of the things that concerns me with the Anderson project is how much time they'll give it to see if this helps or how they'll react if the bats decide they do not like the bat houses.

James

Reply to
JNJ

I can understand that. I'm on the side you're on, believe me. I have sacrificed my entire property to the habitat of anything which resides here. Rats eat in our garden, so do squirrels, bats, mice, birds, snakes, skinks, lizards and gecko. We kill nothing. It all works out.

V
Reply to
animaux

Austin markets itself with those bats! It's truly an amazing sight all summer to see those bats fly out from under the bridge by the millions. They swarm out for about an hour or more. Many of them swoop right next to your ears and it is so exciting. Austin is a very hip city. The motto of the city is "Keep Austin Weird." We have more hippies here from the 60s than anywhere outside of possibly California and Woodstock, NY.

If you like bats, this is the place! Victoria

Reply to
animaux

Wow, that is cold. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's still 85 degrees F. We only get about 10 nights of hard freeze, but the ground never freezes here in this part of Texas. Northern Texas gets very cold and has a lot of snow, especially in the panhandle.

Well, I'm glad they are trying to do something biological, and I too am glad we had this benign debate. See you again.

Victoria

Reply to
animaux

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