Fox Snake and the Bluebirds

[Allen]

Friends of ours long ago took their family camping. I don't know what conditions they camped out under but upon awaking the next morning they all found they had been bit by something. Since the bites were common to all of them they went to the ER. It was determined that they had been bit by bats during the night. Bats can bite w/o causing pain?

They all had to be given the very painful rabies shots which I hear is administered with long needles that reach the stomach.

We have purple martins. We have bats. We have municipalities fog with insecticides. We still have mosquitoes in abundance.

FYI: I always wondered why the mosquitoes seems to favor me over other people. When outside with groups of people no one would be bothered by the flying hypodermics except for me. The others often noticed it. I always brushed it off saying "they must like beer" even though I seldom down more than a couple of beers a month. I found out very recently that they favor type "B" blood which I have and most others don't have.

[Liam]

I built this bat house to what I thought was a good design several years ago. Mounted high in an oak tree on the edge of my yard. Nada! Not a single bat seen as yet. Choosy little buggers!
bat.jpg

[Allen]

Consider yourself blessed. You have bugs but not bats.

The few bat houses I've seen looked like nothing more than a wooden crate turned upside down with the opening at the bottom nailed to a tree trunk about 20' up or so. I suppose there may be something inside for them to perch on but that may be optional since they can stick to a flat surface.

The only bat house I want to see is one riddled with holes from shotgun blast.

BTW: That's a very attractive deck and yard you have.

[Merc]

Bats are protected under state and federal laws so killing them is illegal. The law said I had to wait until after August 1st to evict them and killing them was not an option.

The bat box that was installed on my property by the wildlife specialist is at the top of a 12 foot tall 4X4 and can house up to 75 bats. It is facing the Southwest and is in full sunlight almost all day. It is painted black so that it absorbs the heat from the sun and provides the ideal daytime temperature. Since it is out in the open, it can be approached from all directions.

The box is their summer home and a place to rear their pups. By October or November, most migratory bats have left while the hibernating bats have found a cave or something similar with a stable temperature to spend the winter.

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I have done all that I can for them and hope to see them occupy the box this or next year.

[Allen]

Alligators were protected here for decades.

The govt said they were endangered while we were over-run with them.

Now the protection is lifted and we have a gator problem mostly caused by the govt.

Not comparing a gator to a flying rat, just pointing out that the govt doesn't always make wise decisions.

[Merc]

There is supposed to be a balance in nature. It is there to keep everything in check. Birds and bats compete with each other to keep the earth from being over-run by insects. That is a good thing. Even bug eating bugs like dragon flies are helping out. Mosquitoes are high on their menu. Unfortunately, purple martins love eating dragon flies.

Most of us prefer to watch the beautiful bug-eating birds. The bats aren’t pretty but that is ok. They do their work at night when nobody can see them and most eat their weight in bugs in one night. That is probably more than a bird will eat in a week.

Have you ever fished from a boat at night in early summer? I did a few times - never again. Spray all you want with insect repellent, nothing works. 99% of the bugs in PA are most active at night when the birds are all sleeping. The bats are out there finding them at night with their echo location senses and gobbling them up. Flying rat is not a fair characterization of the most unique and specialized animal on earth.

Mosquitoes? They have caused the spread of many diseases. Google heartworm disease. It is a disease in pets from a parasitic worm that comes from the bite of a mosquito. Look up yellow fever, malaria, West Nile virus, Zika and dengue fever. Yep. All transmitted by mosquitoes. You should be grateful that there is an animal out there that is willing to put a very large dent in their population.

[lyman]

+1 on the night fishing

friend and I were out in the middle of a local reservoir, no issues out in the middle, just enough light to see what you were doing (full moon0
we decided to plug in a floating headlamp, and see what we could catch,
big mistake, in 10 minutes we were damn near eaten alive, deep woods off was not working,



re the bats, they come out at dusk around here,

I have a large lawn (drain field and reserve) beside the house, neat to sit out on the deck and watch the bat's acrobatics I don't think they are capable of flying in a straight line,,, ,

[Allen]

Dragon fly larvae eat young fish and shrimp.

Most of us don't fish at night.

Bats spread diseases too and I never said mosquitos were a good thing. I'd just rather have a yard full of them even with my mosquito magnet type "B" than have a yard full of bats.

As far as the balance of nature goes where do you draw the line? Some would argue that mosquitoes are part of that balance and shouldn't be eaten.

Other than bats we pretty much see things eye to eye and we're not going to change each others mind.

[lyman]

my first time at Camp Perry, and was sharing a hut with the Va State Team

I was shooting the Vintage Springfield Match, had an early slot,

I had been there a few days, and knew the skeeters were rough,

slathered Skeeter repellent all over every bit of skin exposed and walked from the huts to the check in,

standing in line, barely daybreak, and I could hear them buzzing by my ears,

I apparently missed a few sections on my hands and arms, one spot, maybe as big as a pencil eraser, had 4 skeeters drilling for oil on it,


as soon as the sun got up a bit they all left,

[Merc]

+1 on the night fishing

friend and I were out in the middle of a local reservoir, no issues out in the middle, just enough light to see what you were doing (full moon0
we decided to plug in a floating headlamp, and see what we could catch,
big mistake, in 10 minutes we were damn near eaten alive, deep woods off was not working,



re the bats, they come out at dusk around here,

I have a large lawn (drain field and reserve) beside the house, neat to sit out on the deck and watch the bat's acrobatics I don't think they are capable of flying in a straight line,,, ,

Bats are expert flyers and can actually use their wings to guide insects into their mouths.

Speaking of swarming insects, we have enormous hatches of Mayflies on Lake Erie in early May. They actually show up on weather radar as clouds. They live long enough to spawn and fly around in huge swarms for a day and then they die. They only live in clean well oxygenated water and that description would fit Lake Erie today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb6U3Hyui8E

We used to rent a cottage on the beach at Lake Erie near the NY border back in the 1970s. There was a street light on the road in front of the cottage that attracted a swarm of millions of midges every night. We would watch them gather on the light and sit on each other. Once the swarm got too heavy, they would fall to the ground as one and then they would fly back up to the light and the process would start all over again. The bats feasting on them every night should have eventually become too big to fly.