Bats Can Help Fight Mosquito Battle

More Residents Turn To Bats For Assistance

UPDATED: 1:20 p.m. EDT August 29, 2003

DELTONA, Fla. -- Standing water is a paradise for mosquitoes, and with diseases from West Nile virus to malaria spreading, people will do almost anything to keep the bugs from biting.

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	Bats Aid In Mosquito Battle

More people are now turning to bats for help because they eat mosquitoes by the thousands.

"This is a Mexican free-tailed, and probably most common to live in bat houses in Florida," Fly-By-Night Bat Specialists representative Kelly Deichmueller said.

The little guys can eat. Bat babies raised by Fly-By-Night eat blended mealworms.

"It's messy now, but they'll clean themselves up. Actually, they're probably a little cleaner than cats," Deichmueller said.

When they can fly and are set free, they'll eat their weight in insects each night -- that includes mosquitoes.

That's when Fly-By-Night started selling more bat houses. The bats leave the houses at dusk for dinner.

The inside of a bat house contains rough wood. It has to be to give the bats something to hang onto. While slots in the house look small, bats can fit through them. Experts said if your thumb fits through, so will a bat.

Laura Finn said bat houses are often put up as a place for bats to go instead of buildings. But the city of Tavares, Fla., put up two bat houses in parks, hoping it would reduce the insect population.

"They don't control the insect population, but they significantly impact ... I've seen mosquitoes that are huge, and I know bats will eat them," Finn said.

Fly-By-Night also said bat houses are more acceptable because people aren't as scared as bats anymore.

Finn said they don't attack people and don't get caught in people's hair. Finn also said less than one percent have rabies, but if they're found on the ground, Animal Control should be contacted and they should not be picked up.