At a recent county commission meeting, a report from one of the local communities mentioned that they were looking at building and installing "bat houses" to help control their mosquito population.
So, can bats control mosquitoes?
With nearly one thousand species, bats dwell in most places on earth, except for extremely cold or hot climates and some remote islands. In the United States, 45 species have been recorded, of which 22 have been found in Nevada. While many species of bats reside in caves or mines, others inhabit trees, old buildings, bridges or culverts. Bat houses can provide shelter for bats in suburban areas.
Most species of bats feed on a wide variety of insects. The three orders of insects most commonly consumed by bats in the United States are moths (Lepidoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), and flies (Diptera). Although many bats eat insects in the family that contains mosquitoes (Diptera), most bats don't seem to have a strong liking for mosquitoes.
Research conducted in the 1950s indicated 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.
Therefore, given the small quantities of mosquitoes consumed by most bats, it is unlikely that bats would be effective at controlling large mosquito populations. However, large colonies of bats will certainly reduce the number of insects nearby. Bats are beneficial for insect control not only because they consume large quantities of insects, but because many insects avoid areas where they hear bat calls. Therefore, attracting bats to an area where a natural form of insect control is desired can be a smart idea.
What Can You Do to Attract Bats?
Bats roost in both naturally occurring and man-made structures. Natural structures used by bats include caves, rock crevices, hollows inside live and dead trees. Man-made structures used by roosting bats include mines, bridges, culverts, buildings, and specially made bat houses. These areas should be left undisturbed if you want to attract bats.
Small bat houses are relatively simple to build and the materials required are fairly inexpensive. For information on how to build a bat house, go to: (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW290 - "Effective Bat Houses for FL" EDIS). Manufactured bat houses are available at many stores and also online. However, many pre-made houses will not attract bats because of poor design or construction. The Bat Conservation International website (www.batcon.org) lists vendors who sell bat houses with characteristics proven to be attractive to bats.
[[In-content Ad]]
