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| TRR photo by Sandy Long | |
| Two of the many bats that roost in the attic of the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen, PA. Bats give birth to live young, which are blind and naked at birth, and nurse them just like humans do. When mother bats leave the roost at dusk to hunt insects, the young are left behind in clusters, for warmth, under the care of a few female bats. Upon return, mothers locate their pups by distinctive calls. (Click for larger version)
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Batty inhabitants ‘haunt’ museum’s attic
Zane Grey’s former home hosts helpful insect predators
By Sandy Long
LACKAWAXEN, PA — On the heels of Halloween, images of bats haunt us. Depicted as frightening flying miniature vampires, bats suffer by association with the less savory characters of the spooky holiday—ghouls, skeletons and goblins. Depicted with oversized fangs and menacing visages, bats are feared by many, and are often harmed in response to this fear. Viewed realistically, bats are small flying mammals that play important environmental roles and provide many unseen benefits to humans.
A colony of bats calls the attic of the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen its summer home, returning faithfully every spring to the warm and stuffy roost, before leaving again when the colder seasons descend.
Employees of the National Park Service (NPS) who work in the floors below have made efforts to co-exist with the diminutive flyers that sometimes cause problems when they find their way into an office or public area within the building. Other challenges include the removal of accumulated bat guano and the disconcerting effect that occurs when a hapless bat activates a motion detector, setting off the security alarm and necessitating a middle-of-the-night inspection.
Bat benefits
These problems are weighed against the many merits of bats, which eat up to 600 mosquitoes per hour, or up to 3,000 insects per night. For this reason, farmers often encourage bats to establish residency around their farms. Some even provide bat houses in an effort to attract more bats and reduce the need for pesticides.
Bats are often seen winging around lights or swooping over our swimming pools. That’s because bats feed where insects swarm, using a highly sophisticated technique called echolocation, which utilizes sound waves and serves as a sort of radar. It’s what allows a bat to swoop alarmingly close to a human without actually touching the person. Bats fly with their mouths open, emitting ultrasonic sound pulses to locate objects and insects. This helps them to avoid flying into an object.
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| TRR photo by Sandy Long | |
| A bat responds to being photographed as it dangles from boards in the attic of the museum. A bat’s wings are really flaps of skin extending from the fingers of the bat’s front legs to the hind legs and tail. This feature endows bats with the status of being the only mammals that truly fly. (Click for larger version)
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The highly respected Bat Conservation International (BCI) reports that bats “have contributed to the development of navigational aids for the blind, birth control and artificial insemination techniques, vaccine production, drug testing, and even to a better understanding of low-temperature surgical procedures.” Bat guano is a source of organic fertilizer and bats pollinate many tropical and sub-tropical trees and shrubs, providing us with avocados, bananas, cashews, cloves, dates, figs, mangos and more.
Bats also aid in reforestation by dispersing seeds and their droppings, which support bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents and producing antibiotics. More than 450 commercial products come from bat-dependent plants (fibers, dyes, medicine, timber).
Relocating the roost
Bats originally made their homes in forest environments. As early settlers cleared land and constructed houses, some bat species adapted by moving in with humans, finding our hot moist attics to be wonderful incubators for bat pups. Some of us elect to live with bats in our belfries. Many of us do not. Ultimately, humans pose a more substantial threat to bats than bats do to humans.
Once the museum’s bat colony leaves for warmer climes, another attempt will be made to seal any openings in the historic structure and thereby exclude the colony from returning to the attic next spring. When a colony is excluded, the bats must locate an alternative roosting site. Don Hamilton, natural resource specialist with the NPS Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, said that past attempts to relocate the colony to a bat house installed by the NPS have so far proved unsuccessful.
Although he admits there are no easy solutions to addressing the museum’s bats, ideally, Hamilton would like to see the colony protected with an enclosure that would allow for observation and educational interpretive programs. Understanding why and how bats do what they do would help to reduce our fear of them, Hamilton noted.
“One of the best things we can do is attempt to appreciate the role of bats and the other little-understood creatures in our world, and carefully consider the effects of our actions on them, the environment, and ultimately ourselves,” wrote Hamilton in an issue of the Upper Delaware Council newsletter. “Perhaps then we’ll be less eager to embrace some of the quick fix solutions to environmental problems we’ve so often chosen in the past. They, after all, are more likely to be what comes back to haunt us.”
Bat tips and trivia
• Bats range in size from a bumble bee-sized bat to giant flying foxes with six-foot wingspans. They might live for 30 years, but their special needs and slow reproductive rates (one or two young per year) make it difficult for them to adapt to changes in their habitats.
• Never handle a bat that is on the ground. It may be sick. Bats are susceptible to rabies, although the incidence of rabies in bat populations is low (less than 0.5 percent of wild bats in the United States and Canada).
• To get a bat out of the house, shut doors to other rooms to confine bat. Open windows leading outside to allow the bat to escape. Leave lights on and watch quietly until the bat leaves (it usually takes 10 to 15 minutes for the bat to settle and find the opening). Don’t be alarmed if bat swoops at you, it is trying to get its bearings. If the bat comes to rest, put on a pair of leather gloves, place a container over the bat, slide a piece of rigid cardboard between the container and wall and carry the container outside. Set the container on an elevated surface and remove the cardboard. Bats must drop from a perch and catch air under their wings to fly.
• Pennsylvania has nine species of bats: little brown bat, big brown bat, red bat, silver-haired bat, small-footed bat, long-eared bat, Indiana bat, pipistrelle and hoary bat. See them all, and more, at http://greenworks.tv/wildlife/bats/species.html .
• Bat boxes provide a means for keeping bats around while benefiting from their chemical-free insect control. The houses are easy to build and to install. Many lawn and garden centers sell them. Bat Conservation International (BCI) sells bat houses, do-it-yourself kits and a video titled, “Building Homes for Bats,” which comes with a set of plans for a bat nursery house. Visit www.batcon.org or call 800/538-BATS.
• Bat Conservation and Management (BCM) is a Pennsylvania company providing information and assistance with attracting or excluding bats. Visit www.batmanagement.com for more information.
• PA’s Wild Resource Conservation Fund has produced an informative video about the state’s bats. View it at http://www.greenworks.tv/wildlife/bats/batpage1.html.
• To receive a free poster of Pennsylvania’s bats, send your request to smyers@dcnr.state.pa.us or Wild Resource Conservation Fund, Box 8764, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8764.
• To obtain a copy of the highly informative “A Homeowner’s Guide to Northeastern Bats and Bat Problems,” visit www.cas.psu.edu or contact the Publication Distribution Center, PSU, 112 Agricultural Administration Building, University Park, PA 16802.
