Friday, July 18, 2008

Death of the Mosquito Killers - Attack of the Killer Mosquitos?

Does anyone else feel like the mosquitos have been especially vicious this year? It's probably due to the milder winter and stagnant pools in the creeks hereabout, but it's also a possible foretaste of things to come if bat populations take a dive.
My sister sent me this article from NaturalNews.com describing a massive bat die-off along the east coast due to something scientists are calling White-Nose Syndrome. Bats are found dead on the floors of their cave with a white fungus on their nose or pneumonia in their lungs. Leading the list of suspects are the pesticides used to control mosquitos in the wake of West Nile Virus hysteria. (How many people actually died from West Nile Virus? About 120/year nationwide in the last few years. See here.)
I'm not sure what the status of Austin's beloved colony of Mexican
 Free-Tailed Bats is, but I sincerely hope that they hold strong in the face of the epidemic. This is one more reason Divine Intervention may not be necessary for the Apocalypse. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tim, I found out about this because a number of people who post on the horse board I frequent have seen multiple dead bats in the central Texas area. There are bats dying around here, but obviously not in the same proportion that they are seeing in the northeast. I hope whatever is causing it goes away! I like bats!

Samuel said...

A bat post...how fitting.

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