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EWWW, it'll fly in my hair, UGGGG,
it'll drink our blood..... YECHHHH, it'll give us rabies.
I know you've heard all these silly
superstitions about bats and their strange habits. And, by now,
enough good information is around to tell a much different story
about these misunderstood mammals.
When we first moved to the farm, we
had a nightly aerial show, performed by our resident bats. We've
erected a 'Bat Palace' in hopes of luring even more to the yard,
but so far, our aerial artists have chosen to keep their home
site a secret.
If you do buy a bat house, (and I
strongly suggest it be a feature in your 'yard art' collection),
make sure it is erected in an open site.
Bats use their wings in a more circular
motion than birds do, and will avoid going to nest where it is
difficult to enter. Bat houses are designed with several chambers,
the opening at the bottom, so they can fly to the house, and crawl
to a selected chamber for their daytime sleep.
If you are lucky enough to have your
house chosen by a bat colony, realize that they can pack hundreds
into a small space. So, your own nightly aerial migration show
will be spectactular!
Make sure your bat house is out of
the hot afternoon sun as much as possible, and erect it at least
15 to 18 feet in the air.
They need a ready water source, as
they commonly drink just prior to retiring. Make sure your bat
house is within 1/4 mile of a pond or other constant water supply.
Here in Texas, our common bat is called
the Mexican Freetail Bat, and is one of the smallest of the bat
family.
I was first introduced to the wonders
of bats in Belize, where the larger fox bats are more common.
And, yes, in Central America, there are vampire bats, which are
even smaller than our common brown bats and freetails.
Bats are important to pollination
of rainforsted lands as they eat the ripening fruit and spread
seeds over a large distance. Bats also eat insects that feed on
crops, making them an important feature in keeping the night flyers
at bay.
To learn more about these fascinating
creatures, please look in on BCI,( Bat Conservation International).
Founded in Austin Texas in 1982, this agency has successfully
sought to protect many bat caves, and to ban the use of pesticides
against bats in several states.
Bat
Conservation International
P. O. Box 16203
Austin, Tx, 78716
Text
and images copyright 1998 Martha
Wells
Thanks
to Alchemy Mindworks Inc for the bat animation,.
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