Thursday 31 October 2013

It's that time of year. Are they driving you batty?


Bats range in size from the world’s smallest mammal, the
batty
bumblebee bat, to the 6-foot wingspans of the flying fox. Our native bats in this area are small, most weighing about the same as a few pennies.

The thousands of insects they eat each night save farmers millions of dollars on insect control and crop damage. That makes bats the most organic form of insect control you can get. 


The US Wildlife services want us to remember that bats are not to be feared, and that they are in danger die to White Nose Syndrome: 
bat

What should we fear this Halloween instead of bats? Their extinction. The deadly white-nose syndrome (WNS) disease is devastating our hibernating bats. Named for the white fungus that appears on bats, WNS has killed more than 5.7 million bats in eastern North America. It’s even led to a 99-percent drop in northern long-eared bats in the Northeast, which is why we proposed to protect them as endangered just earlier this month. (In fact, WNS was discovered in New York in 2006.)
Here is the last bat I captured!
From August:
Bats in my belfry? Nope. Bedroom - just 1 bat
This one flew from the chimney opening downstairs, upstairs into the living room, and then into the bedroom, where it was circling the fan.
See the previous post for THAT video!



 .

 I'm happy to share it, since they featured Canada on their infograph map!!


Bedroom bat!

6 comments:

EG CameraGirl said...

I'm very sad that bats are on such a sharp decline.

Red said...

Good to see that you have lots of bats there. I did not see one bat here this summer.

Vagabonde said...

I have not seen bats around here, but wish there were some. I read about the disease and hope they can find a cure for it.
I also saw that you already have frost – we are just getting cool nights around here – today it is going to be 74 F. I hope we get some snow this year as we have not seen snow in the last two years.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
Perfect post for the day! YAM xx

Al said...

I like the creatures that scare so many people - like you say, bats are great insect control. Although I'm not sure I want one in my bedroom!

Powell River Books said...

The last of our bats left about two weeks ago. They will be gone all winter and early spring. I expect them back probably in mid-June. They really help keep the bugs down at the cabin. My only complaint is when they come back home in the early morning and make noise up under the tin roof where they sleep. At least they have settled in the front of the cabin. One year they were right over our bed and it did drive me batty. - Margy