The Bats

The purple martins get glory by day

As insect eaters while they glide and play

 

But, in the dark of night

Many bad insects are in flight

 

Troublesome bugs of all type

Moths, beetles and mosquitoes that bite

All feel free to fly about

Bugs know when the birds are not out

 

But, when the light of day fades away

Many hungry bats come out to feed and play

 

All night they fly and eat

While the martins are fast asleep

 

They are able to catch bugs by the pound

While they navigate using high frequency sound

 

But, at light of day they hurry on back

To a dark deep cave or spooky old shack

 

And rest up for another night

Of catching bad bugs while in flight

 

And return the skies of day

To the martins that glide and play.

 

In the San Antonio area the bats can outnumber the martins as much as one hundred to one. They come up from their winter home in Mexico at about the same time that the martins arrive, but the bats stay three to four months longer in the fall.

Bats detect flying insects and find their way around in the dark by echo&; location. They can detect objects as fine as human hair, so it is very rare that a bat will accidentally run into a person or thing.

Bats don't mate until they are two years old or older, but they are able to fly and eat bugs within three to four weeks after birth. The gestation period is six to eight weeks. The nursery caves are filled with mother bats raising their young. Bats raise only one young per year. Bats can live to be thirty years old.

There are many different species of bats. The smallest bat is the size of a bumblebee and the largest has a six; foot wingspan. Seventy percent of the bat species are insect; eaters. The rest eat fish, frogs, fruit or blood. There are only three species of vampire bats, and they all live in Latin America.

Bats are important to the ecosystem, particularly in controlling insects. One bat can eat 600 mosquitoes in one hour. Twenty million bats return each year to just one Texas cave, and that colony in a single night will eat a quarter of a million pounds or more of flying insects. These insects are those that would otherwise prey on farmer's crops, homeowner's gardens, or the homeowners

Bats are also important pollinators to many different kinds of plants, especially those in tropical rain forests.

Bat guano is also an important resource. It is full of beneficial microbes. Garden-Ville uses it to inoculate their organic fertilizers, and because of the many good species of microbes and nutrients in guano, it is also used in bioremediation to break down toxic waste. In Peru, the Incas valued guano so highly that they would punish anyone with death for harming the bats. Guano tea can destroy fungus on plants, and guano can destroy harmful nematodes in the soil.

There are many reasons to protect bats. They are helpful in every respect and rarely harmful. You can learn more about bats from Bat Conservation International, P.O. Box 162603, Austin TX 78716.

 

The Garden-Ville Method - Lessons in Nature