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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bat house person- No I'm not on any listserves and I haven't told others about my new bat houses. We already have lots of bats in the woods behind our house. I'm hoping to draw them closer to my house. Even one bat can eat 1000 mosquitoes an hour at night. I can report back this summer to update on whether this has been effective.

I can't empty the standing water because I think the main culprit is the stream behind our house. It often runs dry in the summer and breeds mosquitoes. It also has little pockets of water that breed them too. [/quote]

I love bats, I'm from the countryside and we had MANY hundreds of bats in the evenings. They are great animals and should be protected/preserved in high-impact ways.

However, as I mentioned, from the Natural Resources Manager for Arlington (this was on my neighborhood listserv):

"...Now mosquitos of course are still a concern for various reasons anyways, especially with the main culprit being the Asian Tiger Mosquito and its ability to use man made dwellings. This mosquito does not really use our streams and moving water, but more so small trapped water containers such as pot holders, roof drains, and discarded trash receptacles. Mosquitos are indeed also eaten by bats, but to be honest, they are not the thing any of our 16 species prefer. These generally go for stuff with more meat to them, especially moths and with some species beetles. We definitely want bats around, and they do eat mosquitos, but just want to make that evident.

To continue being honest, bat boxes have an absolutely terrible occupancy rate in our region. Less than 2% actually attract or house bats from what I’ve heard. They work in other parts of the country and world better, and people are researching how to make them more productive for our region, but you very rarely ever get bats to use bat boxes around here. Part of this has to do with how small commercial ones are, their placement and dimensions, their exposure to the sun, the materials they’re made from, and a lot of other reasons. We have several in various places in the County and I do not think even one is home to any bats or ever has been. The bottom line is that they are almost a complete waste of effort and resources in our area. Again, just being brutally honest. Until they build a better bat box locally, I would not suggest to people falsely that they will work to provide bat habitat and help control mosquitos. Again, just being brutally honest.

The best method of mosquito control remains to combat their breeding locations. Have neighborhoods clear their gutters (a place where lots of breeding takes place), empty pot stands and regularly change bird baths/other water sources, clean the area of tires, cans, bottles, and such that can hold the water that mosquitos need to survive. This is the most effective way to deal with mosquitos. I doubt this is what you wanted to hear, but that’s my opinion on these things, though it is also shared by other people who are considered knowledgeable on these things as well. Thanks, and sorry I can’t give you a better answer."
 
Alonso Abugattas
Natural Resources Manager
Arlington County Parks, VA[/quote]

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