Insect-Devouring Bats Now Welcomed in New York (nytimes.com)

Slashdot reader HughPickens.com shares an article from the New York Times: The town of North Hempstead on Long Island has approved the construction of bat houses in several parks to attract more bats to the area because despite their less-than-desirable reputation, bats possess a remarkable ability to control insects, especially disease-carrying mosquitoes. "Bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour," says Judi Bosworth. "That's extraordinary. A pesticide couldn't do that." As mosquito season heats up, bringing with it the threat of the West Nile and Zika viruses, the bats make very welcome neighbors.

[T]he Asian tiger mosquito is found on Long Island and is capable of transmitting Zika in a laboratory setting, and as of October, 490 cases of West Nile and 37 deaths resulting from it have been recorded in New York since 2000. "If you minimize the mosquito population you minimize the possible incidence of the Zika virus," says Larry Schultz. "If you reduce the mosquito population, you make parks more accessible."
"Bats really have been very maligned," says Bosworth -- noting they don't really swoop down on your head and get tangled in your hair.

Comments

Re:Don't like bats?

[EmeraldBot]

Why people don't like bats is bejond me. They are cute, it looks nice when they fly around and they harm no one.

They can spread rabies through their bites, and although they rarely attack people, they sometimes do if they feel threatened (as in old buildings). I think it's fantastic that people are finally starting to realize that nature provides its own balancing mechanisms, but I think that if the bat population becomes large enough, rabies vaccines might be a good idea.

Re:Don't like bats?

[EmeraldBot]

You don't need to be bitten by a bat in order to get rabies. any type of saliva exposure is adequate. rabies vaccines are inadequate. No vaccine has 100% effectiveness and rabies is close to 100% fatal. Given the bat vector, herd immunity does not apply. I think keeping the bats away is far preferable.

If saliva doesn't penetrate the skin, it's very unlikely to make you sick unless you decide it's a smart idea to rub your finger right over the spot and then put it in your mouth, and rabies vaccines are pretty effective, something like a 97% success rate even after 10+ years later, and bats are pretty unlikely to attack people, even the rabid ones, because we run on different circadian rhythms. The problem is applying the vaccines - I don't think rabies is a standard vaccine for people, and if we're going to encourage large scale residency of bats in a city, then I think at least recommending the vaccine might not be the worst of ideas. Honestly, I think the risk of rabies from a bat is significantly smaller than something taking hold in the excessive mosquito population, so it's definitely a decision I support, but I think we need to consider everything, and that includes the risk of a rabies outbreak.