BUILD BAT BOXES
You can become part of a new and important conservation project that will help control insects around your home and perhaps save an endangered mammal, including models and directions.
You can become part of a new and important
conservation project . . . one that will help control
insects around your home and —
perhaps
— save an endangered mammal.
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People who reside near rivers, swamps, lakes, or ponds can
usually expect high insect populations. But, if they're
lucky, such folks will discover that the bugs are kept in
check by local colonies of bats . . . which swoop out of
their roosts each evening and locate their pesky prey with
remarkably precise "radar" systems (echoes of their
high-pitched squeaks return to them whenever the sound
waves encounter solid objects). During the summer months,
bat colonies consume mosquitoes, gnats, moths, and beetles,
thereby playing essential roles in the ecosystem. In fact,
some of the little predators eat as much as half their
body weight in insects each night!
A WAR OF IGNORANCE
Unfortunately, however, these nocturnal hunters aren't seen
in the night skies as often as they were some 35 years ago
. . . because they've suffered, as many insectivorous (and
other!) birds have, from the effects of DDT. And though
this deadly pesticide has been banned from general use in
the United States since 1972, it's sometimes still,
illegally, dumped into attics as "bat control" (although
the poison probably endangers the human occupants
of treated residences almost as much as it does the winged
population it's meant to kill or evict).
Furthermore, as if residual DDT (and the continuing
"outlaw" use of the chemical) in the United States weren't
bad enough, bats have no awareness of national borders. As
reported in Bits and Pieces in MOTHER NO. 58, the Carlsbad
Caverns' bat population decreased from an estimated 8.7
million in 1936 to 200,000 in 1973 . . . and is still being
reduced as a result of the mammals' annual migration to
Mexico, where DDT is still in regular use.
While many bats fall to such poisons, others are prey to
the deeply ingrained fears and misunderstandings of humans
who wantonly destroy their roosts or carelessly disturb the
animals in their hibernation caves. The latter action can
be particularly harmful, because — when hibernating
— bats fall into a deep torpor and live off small
reserves of stored fat. If they're aroused unnecessarily,
the animals use up their "rations" too rapidly, and may
well starve in their sleep before the spring awakening.
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