Bat epidemic threatens U.S. agriculture

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The disappearance of millions of the nations honey bees is being followed by a fall in the bat population due to an epidemic called white-nose syndrome. The bat, another winged animal that is vital to U.S. agriculture.

Since white-nose syndrome was discovered in New York four years ago, the mysterious fungus has swept across 17 states as far west as Oklahoma, killing a million bats. The majority of the dead were little brown bats, which have lost an estimated 20% of their population in the northeastern United States over the last four years. While the fungus seems to prefer the 25 species of hibernating bats, each of the 45 species of bats in the United States and Canada may be susceptible to the disease.

Bats are the unsung heroes of organic farming, consuming massive amounts of pests on a daily basis. The little brown bat, Montana’s most common bat species, gobbles up 1,200 insects per hour and in one 2006 study, bats in South-Central Texas were shown to have an annual pest control value of over $740,000 (29 percent of the value of the area’s cotton crop).

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“It is unbelievably sad and disheartening, and we can’t seem to move fast enough to get ahead of it,” U.S. Geological Survey wildlife biologist LeAnn White says. “We may be looking at phenomenal losses across the country with unknown ecological consequences.”

Bats play an important part in North America’s ecology. Bats have always existed at close to the numbers seen prior to the arrival of white-nose syndrome, feasting on such night-flying insects as mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus, and agricultural pests damaging to cotton and corn crops.

Bats also pollinate plants, including the saguaro cactus. “We don’t know what will happen if they disappear,” USGS biologist Paul Cryan says. A recent study published in Science estimates that the value of pest control provided by bats each year is at least $3.7 billion nationwide

The fungus that spread white-nose syndrome is also rampant in Europe, but bats aren’t dropping dead there.

What’s the missing piece that is killing so many U.S. bats? It’s hard to say, but organizations like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Bat Conservation International are scrambling to find out before bat species start going extinct. Because once that happens, farmers may find themselves without a major ally in the war against pests.

 

The mysterious white-nose syndrome


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Holte Ender

Holte Ender will always try to see your point of view, but sometimes it is hard to stick his head that far up his @$$.
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12 years ago

seychelles national weather service

12 years ago

Four years and not a clue offered in this piece. WTF anyway! I feel for the fellow in the picture that we can’t do anything to help. We’re helping other ways and in other places ya see.

12 years ago

Bats sniffing ‘coke’?….It can’t be!!!…;-)

Whatever it is I bet you my house ‘humanity’ is behind it…unintentionally of course…we’re very good at ‘unintentional’…

Just ask The Dodo….

If ‘the powers that be’ would pour money into trying to save the bats – not to mention the honey bee – the way they pour money into illegal wars….oh shut up Dinners…it’ll never happen….we’re humanity….

‘The fungus that spread white-nose syndrome is also rampant in Europe, but bats aren’t dropping dead there’ – I expect Tony Bliar and Peter ‘Mad Queer’ Mendelson to claim credit for that within 48 hours….

jackiemearound
12 years ago

Fungus is heavily researched by Monsanto, the arch enemy of the environment, organic farming, and humanity. I wonder if research by non profit science will reveal Monsanto and fungicides/pesticides/herbicides had a hand in both hive/colony collapse and white nose fungus in bats? Big business is killing nature for profit. Don’t buy their stuff.

Beekin
12 years ago

Bats have had terrible reputation over the years, bloodsucking, disease spreading etc., they are an important part of the ecosystem.

Robert E. Lee
12 years ago

Everything we do or don’t do has consequences. Each time I hear or read that an entire species is being threatened I have to wonder when it will be our turn.

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