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Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Bats Dying in New England - 11/15/09 09:13 AM
Apparently the bats are in great trouble in New England!

Bats in New England

Have you seen bats in your area?
What a horrifying article. I am so sad at the thought of all those bats falling dead. I have always thought bats were kind of cute and very maligned. They are surrounded by so many old wives tales and should be no more feared than any other wild creature.

I mentioned to my DH, while reading the article, how many mosquitoes are eaten by bats. To which he replied "well so do purple martins." Yeah they do, but they also eat bees. I've been on a mission to get people to modify the ridiculous numbers of purple martin houses I see around here every summer, because of the threat to bees. I'm not trying to threaten the martins, just let people be aware that they aren't in any danger and the bees are.

So far I haven't noticed any decline in bat numbers around me, but it's probably just a matter of time. Thanks, Lisa, for bringing it to our attention.
That's a frightening story. When you think about the amount of insects that one bat can consume each year...
Posted By: Angie-cosmetics editor Re: Bats Dying in New England - 11/15/09 04:35 PM
That's horrifying. That's a huge decline in numbers.

My son had planned a caving trip this summer but later mentioned that the cave was closed so he went hiking instead. I never gave it another thought because TN is always closing and reopening natural areas for various reasons. After reading this, I googled and it was closed to protect the bat population, as mentioned in the article.

I have always enjoyed watching the bats in the evenings. There seem to still be quite a few around my sister's farm and we haven't noticed a decline in numbers. She has bat houses all along the fence rows to encourage them to stay. Hopefully, they won't be infected with this.
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Bats Dying in New England - 12/18/09 01:22 AM
I do hope they figure it out too. I love bats, I think they are great little critters that eat mosquitoes for us.
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