Fight Bugs with Bats

(ENS) - Homeowners are installing backyard bat houses these days to encourage the flying mammals to hang around and provide natural pest control, says a University of Florida (UF) wildlife specialist . “A few dozen bats can make a big difference in a neighborhood,” he said. “Many species can eat 1,000 flying insects per night, including mosquitoes, moths, flies—anything they can catch.”

Interest in backyard bat houses increased among Florida residents since mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus were first detected in the state. The virus can cause severe encephalitis in humans and is occasionally fatal. It was first documented in the US in New York in 1999.

Shaped like suitcases, bat houses are typically made of wood and placed high atop poles or buildings. Inside, bats hang from the walls, crowded together to share body heat. According to Bat Conservation International in Austin, TX, thousands of bat houses are now used in the US and abroad. The first known bat house was built in San Antonio, Tex. in 1902. Small backyard bat houses became popular in Europe in the 1960s and have been catching on in the US since the mid-1980s.

Gainesville veterinarian Debbie Kemmerer has about 600 bats in a bat house above her office parking lot. Bats do not land in people’s hair, and the incidence of rabies in bats is “extremely low,” she said.