Why Should Homeowners Care About Bats?
Bats eat thousands of bugs every day. They are a natural pest controller. In the Great Lakes region, bats eat beetles, earworm moths, and other critters. One study estimates that farmers across the United States save a minimum of $3 billion USD annually on insect control costs because of bats. Like bees, bats are pollinators responsible for dispersing seeds. The forest ecosystem relies on bats to maintain its health. Although bats are often thought of as the enemy, they’re more important to humans than most people realize. Bats have one enemy that is killing them off: white-nose syndrome.What Is White-Nose Syndrome?
While the white-nose syndrome is not currently proven to be dangerous to humans, it can be detrimental to the bat population. White-nose syndrome is a fungus that has killed over 6 million bats in the northeast United States and Canada since 2006. The fungus infects bats and causes them to wake up during hibernation. The bat starves and dies. One bat expert with the Organization for Bat Conservation calls white-nose syndrome “the biggest wildlife catastrophe in America in the last 100 years”.