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Lynx
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| Joined: | Tue Mar 20th, 2007 |
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| Posts: | 1 |
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Posted: Tue Mar 20th, 2007 08:25 pm |
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Just came from a meeting today with the health department officials to discuss Intergrated Pest Management stragities for control of mosuquito larvae. There idea is to treat it with an insect growth regulator. But there is not the funding we need to do trapping and testing.
My idea was to install bat house's in the parks to help control insects. Not a positive response, because bats could cary rabies. I was a little ticked to say the least, especially when the health department claimed they do a poor job of controlling mosquitos.
I am not saying it's the perfect solution but WNV does kill so there is a risk there also. I also brought up the fact that skunks are a clear and present danger when talking about rabies.
Anyhow I have a burning question, if and I say if a bat ie. small brown had rabies would it kill him, or could he live and be a carrier?
I have a country home and put bat houses up, I just made another one with the ruff pine from a pallet. They do an excellent job eating mosquitos, I watch them at dusk swooping for food. I think they are great. I also took a class given by Dr. Tuttle and some of his enthusiasm rubbed off on me.
Any input would be appreciated.
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Joe Spencer
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 522 |
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Posted: Tue Mar 20th, 2007 08:42 pm |
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| Great stuff from you and thank you for posting it! Rabies is far more associated with the Common Big Brown Bat (House Bat) than the little brown bat and other species with the latter eating mosquitoes when abundant and the former not eating mosquitoes at all with beetles being one of their primary prey. Eventually a rabid bat will die as any rabid animal will. The sad fact is that the majority of bats tested are bats that are found (not flying) which may or may not be sick and when they are sick of course they have a higher chance and incidence of being rabid but no more so than for other wild creatures which have inherently been rabid in cycles with outbreaks unlike most bat colonies. There is a reason that rabies is far more common in Big Brown Bats than other species and they are slowly discovering why with more data to come. BCI can provide additional info on the latter. From an environmentally sound approach, one should think of it this way: If you attract little browns hooray! If you attract big brown bats to bat houses rather than little browns you have in fact given them a home that meets their needs (if designed and placed properly) and you may lessen the chances that they will occupy your dwelling. You will additionally reap the benefits they have to offer with guano (potent fertilizer) and insect reduction without pesticides. It is a win win situation when managed and presented properly with education about bats being paramount. Can you imagine a beautiful flower garden at the base of a rocket bat house mounted on a post in which the garden is fertilized automatically by a small colony of bats? The bees then arrive and pollinate the flowers and subsequently venture to your neighbor's yard who is a small bee keeper hobbyist (hope they're not African Bees or hybrid) with a hive who loves you as a neighbor. Everything is connected in some small way and I hoped I've helped in some small way....
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Dave Miller
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Posted: Wed Mar 21st, 2007 01:35 am |
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With regards to bats eating mosquitoes, as I understand it, bats (and most creatures) will always go for the "biggest bang for the buck", i.e. the largest prey that they can catch. For bats, these are moths and beetles. But when moths and beetles are hard to find, they will go after smaller insects such as mosquitoes. So if there are just a few bats in an area, you probably won't see much of a dent in the mosquito population. But if there are lots of bats, you probably will. Ask anyone who has a bat colony in their attic if they have a problem with mosquitoes in their backyard.
The core of the issue is the loss of habitat for bats. If you think of what life was like for bats in your area before people moved in, they probably roosted in or on large dead trees. How many large dead trees are there in your neighborhood today? Bat houses simulate the cavities and exfoliating bark of large dead trees. Thus providing bat houses (or buildings, bridges, etc.) for bats brings the "balance of nature" a bit more back in balance with regard to bats and their prey.
Rabies is of course a concern with any mammal. The statistic for bats is that 1% of bats will get rabies sometime in their lifetime. Note that this does not mean that 1% of all bats have rabies - that percentage is much smaller. I don't know how this compares to racoons, skunks etc. but it is probably similar. But with bats the rules are simple: if you see a bat on the ground, it is likely sick or injured - don't pick it up (especially important to teach this to kids). However I believe they perish quickly after contracting rabies, so the chances of finding a sick bat on the ground, alive, are pretty small. The other example of people getting rabies from bats is when they have bats living in their house. One bat may get rabies and become unable to fly. If it is in a bedroom, it may land on the bed, and while the person is sleeping, they may roll onto the bat and in defense, it bites the person.
If you do some googling you'll find that people's fears about bats and rabies are unwarranted. You are far, far more likely to die from a bee sting than from a bat. Thus you might want to advise the health department to ensure there is no clover, dandelions, barbecues, picnics, garbage cans, or other attractants for bees and wasps in the parks  .
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Terry Lobdell
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Posted: Wed Mar 21st, 2007 03:31 am |
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| I helped exclude some little brown bats from an attic this past September. I'm guessing there were at least 100 maybe as many as 300. The owner said they had been in there for years. He said he had absolutely no mosquito problem in his back yard.........
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Joe Spencer
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 522 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 22nd, 2007 12:46 am |
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| Great points Dave....Terry, after the exclusion were the people interested in providing a bat houses since the bats were excluded?
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Terry Lobdell
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 22nd, 2007 06:07 am |
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Joe, the owner was in the process of putting his house up for sale so I could not put up any bat houses on the property. I was hoping to get a neighbor close by let me put up a couple houses, but no luck. I was able find 2 people within 3 miles that are going to let me put up some houses. The one has a lot of potential. He is an organic farmer with an orchard and a barn with a black shingled roof. The barn already has bats in it! I plan on mounting one house on the east side and 2 on the south side. The second site is down close to the shore of Lake Erie. The whole area is good habitat as there are acres and acres of orchards, vinyards and produce farms.
Another thing I wanted to do was get the local school involved. Where I excluded the bats was right next to a high school. I've always thought building and mounting a bat house would be a great project for any type of student especially because you can build one for almost nothing out of scrap wood. The school is keeping me in mind for a future environmental project but that's not going to help the bats when they return next month. The organic farmer I think has the most immediate potential and I am excited about how many bats I can get roosting at his site! He also has lots of room to mount houses on poles in the future........I will keep you posted on how it all turns out!
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