I've never seen as many bugs as we have this year. I use my leaf blower every morning to blow out my bug zapper. It's caked every morning. You go out at night to star gaze or something, shine a light up and there is bugs, bugs, bugs. Mingees, black flies and mosquitoes, moths, beetles, bats, and more bugs. Maine has turned into bug central.
Not sure if there is a connection but bats have been dying off like crazy because a something called "White Nose" disease. It crazy just how many flying insects a single bat can eat in one night.
Was the weather in Maine much different this year? In eastern Ontario we have been having the wettest summer since records began (1930s) and the heaviest crop of insects (now mainly mosquitos and deer flies.) Frequent rain seems the likeliest cause. (When I fished the West Branch Penobscot Maine bugs seemed worse than at home: but that was years ago.)
I know you know this already but bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. Their forelimbs are developed wings which makes them the only mammals capable of natural flight (as opposed to other mammals like flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos that are only capable of gliding for limited distances). Bats do not flap their arms like birds but spred their "flaps" (actually hands covered with a thin membrane or patagium) out to catch drafts.
Having said that, I'd allow the bats to do what they do naturally; nosh on all those flying insects by the metric ton. If you wanna have some fun, the next bottle of wine you consume, save the cork and when you go outside, toss that up in the air and watch as the bats locate-and-dive at it. It's cheap fun.
As far as disposing of the bugs via your bug-zapper... You do know that light's attracting them to your property, right? If you don't want them dining on (or around/near) you, lose the zapper. You'll enjoy that dark offers better star gazing. You'll also learn that you don't need light to enjoy conversation.
The Ranger
Boy you've got that right. especially the "no see ums" They can get through the screens...It is probably because we are in the midst of the 5th rainist year on record here in Maine...It sure sucks here in the midcoast area though....Driving at night gets one's car/truck COVERED with bug guts....LOL....
In Florida Love Bugs will clog the radiator and cause the engine to over heat. Some use screens to prevent this problem. Others use kitchen spray (PAM), so they won't stick to the grill, bumper, etc. Using the spray, they was off easily.
pic:
They seem alive and well here, if the one visitor in my office earlier this week is any indication.
1 bat is a pretty small data-point. [and one who is not flying around at night, besides. . .]
Read this link- they say between 500,000 and a million bats have died so far. I thought it was a northeast US thing- but this article mentions Texas-
Jim
We got a lot of bugs too. Seeing more bats to catch them too. The frogs, toads, mantis and blue-tailed lizards are having a sporgasbord and there is a cricket living in my family room driving everyone crazy. I just saw hummingbirds eating flying insects, which I did not know. In e.TN.
Seems unlikely: were it so, bats could not take off in still air (viz. caves where there are no drafts.) As high-speed photography confirms, these energetic animals flap their wings to fly just like birds.
The one flying up and down the hallway of my house was certainly flapping rather than waiting for drafts.
This is terrible news. Well, here in western New York, I get bats in my house every August, without fail. I really like them, just not in the house, and I suppose seeing at least this one (at 5:30 am), which looked pretty healthy to me when I was coaxing it into the laundry basket for transport outside, was a good thing, even though I really would rather not have them IN my house. Beautiful eyes, these creatures have. They're just great.
Same here, but circling over my head as I was typing on this very computer (probably reading Usenet!). The breeze is what alerted me to it.
You're absolutely correct. Bats are great, just not in your house and you really don't want to get bit by one. Rabies shots are not fun. There are plenty of ways to safely get rid of a bat that is in the house. I have even picked them up with my hands. I just use those extra thick leather work gloves. They are not going to bite through those.
Most of the bats that get into a home are young males that are just lost. The mothers kick the males out of the nursery almost as soon as they can fly.
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