Town & Country learns about bats
John Yesenosky spoke to Town & Country Garden Club during the group’s June meeting and discussed the importance of bats.
He displayed a bat house he constructed from recycled wood, metal and mesh, and explained how it should be placed 10 to 15 feet above ground facing southeast. He said conservation and management of the bat population is vital as they help control the insect population.
Yesenosky said he began showing an interest in bats after acquiring a 200-year-old house.
Bats are nocturnal carnivores mainly eating insects, many of which are harmful to plants and crops, he said. Bats are the only mammals that fly and echolocation is how bats use sound to locate objects in total darkness.
Born in early spring, the young bat called a pup is blind, naked and helpless growing into adulthood within six weeks and living up to twenty years.
Bats seek out dark, hot secluded spots as hollow trees, vacant buildings, barns and attics where they roost hanging upside down by their feet. Humans, pesticides and windmills pose the most danger to bats. Bats also fall prey to owls, house cats and raccoons.
The biggest threat now is white-nose syndrome, and emerging fungal disease, which is causing massive die-off of the bats. Scientists are continuing their research, but there is no known cure, Yesenosky said.