Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE Pesticides have been suspected as one of possibly many causes of WNS bat deaths. In theory, wide-spread, non-judicious pesticide application can decrease insect abundance, especially if the target insects are crop pests (which we all know pesticides impact all insect/invertebrate species). Research has proven that bats eat astounding numbers of crop pests. So less insects, less bat food, less fat deposited for hibernation...bye-bye bats. It appears that WNS may be the combination of several factors impacting the bats at once.
Cheers, Charles E. Pekins -----Original Message----- From: Mixon Bill [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 6:52 PM To: Cavers Texas Subject: [Texascavers] bat die-off What's wrong with this picture? from the radio-show transcript recently pointed to by a post here) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GELLERMAN: Well if it's not the white nose syndrome that's killing the bats, what is it? KUNZ: Well I've got several hypotheses here. GELLERMAN: Again, Batman - professor Tom Kunz. KUNZ: It has to do with fat. And it has to do with insects and it has to do with other potential reasons why insect populations around the world are declining. You may or may not know this, but insect populations - in particular, moths and some beetles, for example in New York State, a little lady bug beetle is going down the tubes. So this leads to the hypothesis there's a reduction in the number of insects that are available to bats during the fall of the year, when they need that fuel to deposit fat to successfully hibernate. GELLERMAN: This is still just a hypothesis, just a theory, but one thing is certain: bats which are critical to holding the population of insects in check and play important roles in pollinating forests, are dying in large numbers in New England. And bats in caves could be like the canary in the coal mine. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So bats are important because they control the insect population, but they are dying because there aren't enough insects.... (And bats in the northeastern US don't pollinate forests, though some insects do.) -- Mixon ---------------------------------------------- You may "reply" to the address this message came from, but for long-term use, save: Personal: [email protected] AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
