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Wed 14 Jul, 2004 11:23 am
Edit [Moderator]: Moved from General to Wilderness, Wildlife & Ecology.
I live near Dallas, TX, and around this time of year, it is now common for the city to spray poisons into the air at night in selected areas to kill off the mosquitoes. They even report on the news that it is wise to go indoors when they are spraying. Is this common everywhere? I went to San Antonio, TX recently and there are NO mosquitoes there...THEY HAVE BATS. While I was there, I never saw one bat or one mmosquito It was pointed out by a guide that the bats are the reason they have no mosquitoes. Wouldn't it be better for cities to release small bats instead of poisons into the air to control all the flying bugs?
Isn't San Antonio a lot drier than Dallas? That'd be one reason behind the mosquito difference. But, I'm sure that bats are a big factor too.
There is one problem with bats, which is that they can carry rabies. Most of them don't, but the city might not want to take the chance. We have bats around here, BTW, and we also have some mosquitoes, so the bats may be fallin' down on the job a bit.
Quote:Insectivorous Bats
Every so often, a well-meaning conservation group promotes bats to eliminate mosquitoes from areas where nuisance has become intolerable. This undoubtedly leads to rediscovery of research conducted in the 1950s indicating that bats released in a room filled with mosquitoes could catch up to 10 mosquitoes per minute. The research was conducted to measure the effectiveness of echolocation in insectivorous bat species. The results have been extrapolated to suggest that wild bats can consume 600 mosquitoes per hour. Using that figure, a colony of 500 bats will remove 250,000 mosquitoes each hour and theoretically afford mosquito control for an entire neighborhood. Research since that time has shown that insectivorous bats are opportunistic feeders and that mosquitoes make up a very small percentage of their natural diet. Bats' behavior when locked in a room with nothing to feed upon but mosquitoes has no bearing on their behavior in the wild. Bats feed on the same insects that turn up in bug zappers and are no more effective for controlling mosquitoes than their electronic equivalent. Providing habitat to enhance bat populations is an admirable activity for conservation purposes. Using mosquito control as the reason to initiate public interest is misleading at best.
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/proprom.htm
But littlek brought up a very good point. Thw mosquito population in San Antonio is greatest right after the spring rains. Once mid-summer hits and the rains stop there isn't much standing water around for breeding areas. (btw, you have bats in the Dallas area too!)
Just as a quick "FYI" on the current state of affairs RE: Mosquitos in San Antonio:
http://www.news9sanantonio.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=13235
Wow...You people are good!
I understand that PETA's "Spay, don't spray" campaign for mosquito control fell on deaf ears.
I understand that bats love to feast on mosquitoes. We have lots of bats and usually lots of mosquitoes. Like others stated in years where the springs bring more rain the mosquitoes are tons worse. As mosquitoes can carry things like West Nile disease in my area, they frequently spray. I am also the type of person that mosquitoes love and tend to get "bitten alive" so I am a fan of getting rid of them any way possible.
We lived in Jefferson County, Texas from '79 through '90. Spraying malathiaon for 'skeeters was a regular occurance. I don't recall the authorities ever warned us in advance they were going to do it, but we were all glad they did.
I used to play Ultimate Frisbee once a week on a grassy field in MA; one week in spring, mosquitoes & gnats were unbearable. The next week, barn swallows were zipping around all over the field, some flying within inches of us. The following week, neither bugs nor birds were anywhere to be found.
Are bats more efficient for consuming pest insects than insectivorous birds? With the birds you don't have the risk of rabies.
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