First the frogs, then the bees, and now the bats.

[WilliamPitt]

Great.

===

Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why
By TINA KELLEY

Published: March 25, 2008

Al Hicks was standing outside an old mine in the Adirondacks, the largest bat hibernaculum, or winter resting place, in New York State.

It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance.

All would be dead by nightfall. Mr. Hicks, a mammal specialist with the state’s Environmental Conservation Department, said: “Bats don’t fly in the daytime, and bats don’t fly in the winter. Every bat you see out here is a ‘dead bat flying,’ so to speak.”

They have plenty of company. In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter.

Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control.

Researchers have yet to determine whether the bats are being killed by a virus, bacteria, toxin, environmental hazard, metabolic disorder or fungus. Some have been found with pneumonia, but that and the fungus are believed to be secondary symptoms.

“This is probably one of the strangest and most puzzling problems we have had with bats,” said Paul Cryan, a bat ecologist with the United States Geological Survey. “It’s really startling that we’ve not come up with a smoking gun yet.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/science/25bats.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[underpants]

1. The Happening

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOUHJd5u774

[SteppingRazor]

2. How many canaries does the Coal Mine of Planet Earth get? n/t

[cliffordu]

25. This won't hurt mother earth at all.....

We, however are fucked.

:hi:

[flamin lib]

3. Bat populations in the SW have been decimated over the last

20-30 years mostly from pesticide use. In the last ten years or so there has been a re-bound in population, but nowhere near the original numbers.

We can all help by putting up bat houses in our urban environments. It helps scatter the population and decreases loss by disease.

http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp


For those worried about rabies, there was an in depth discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=271x1453

[alphafemale]

5. Thanks, I've wanted a bat house for awhile now. Maybe I can request one for Mother's Day.

Yes.

I'm strange.

But in a good way.

:D

[gasperc]

41. bat shit crazy fire sale over at GOP headquarters

heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend

[knitter4democracy]

8. I'm going to put up a bat house this spring, then.

I grew up with bats in our house. They'd come in where we lived occasionally, and once, a rabid bat bit my dad and stepmom (getting treated was horribly unpleasant, they said). Still, my stepmom has put up bat boxes all over. They eat mosquitos, so why wouldn't we want them around?

[wildeyed]

4. This kind of thing gives me the heebie-jeebies. n/t

[acmavm]

6. What really scares me is that they cannot figure out what the

problem is. They can't tell if its virus, bacteria, toxin, etc. What can kill like that and leave no trace? And what's next?

[flamin lib]

7. The article mentions a fungus like symptom. It may be a disease

of some sort. Bats congregate in great numbers and if there is an infection it spreads like crazy through the population because of the crowded conditions in large populations.

[Norrin Radd]

9. Bad, bad news. Bats eat mosquitoes and other pests.

And, as an old-skool goth, this makes me more glum than normal.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. I am expecting a boatload more bugs this year, then

[Norrin Radd]

46. Try catnip oil to ward off mosquitoes.

[DemoTex]

10. I read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" forty-five years ago.

My dad was an entomology professor and he was concerned .. nay, alarmed! .. by the proliferation of pesticides (these were the days of easy access to DDT, for example) in general, and organophosphates in particular. He required that we all read Silent Spring.

I think it is time to re-read Ms. Carson's work.

BTW: Silent Spring was published in September 1962.

[undergroundpanther]

27. I read silent spring

in second grade, got it from the library and it scared the crap out of me too,But also it awakened even further my love of animals and fascination with nature and the nature of why people ignore pollution abuse and other such bad things corporations do and the toxic things people do to each other and this planet so much.

[kineneb]

31. read it around 1970, first Earth Day

still have my copy. Probably time to read it again.

addition to required reading list, for those living west of the Rockies:

Cadillac Desert Mark Reisner, 1986.

[frogcycle]

11. not to mention the many species of trees

I just bought a bat house this weekend - been meaning to for years, but always miss the spring migration. Maybe I'll get a second.

[flamin lib]

16. Make sure your bat house meets the criteria outlined at

http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp

The bat houses at Lowes aren't suitable for bats. They're designed to sell, not house bats.

Be patient, it may take 2-3 years for bats to find your bat house and there isn't anything you can do to attract them.

[frogcycle]

19. it does

got it at a wild bird supply place and checked it out on the web first

[devilgrrl]

12. I posted this story a month or so ago and got crickets....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2864916

[WilliamPitt]

15. Behold the power of the headline.

;)

[frogcycle]

21. Yeah, but if you had said first Brittney, then Paris... you'd have done better

:)

[frogcycle]

20. did the bats eat the crickets?

I think one out of ten posts on any topic "floats" - the rest sink due to bad timing. Ya gotta keep flinging stuff against the wall until something sticks!

[Voice for Peace]

13. Although I'm not crazy about bats (traumatic childhood encounter) this just makes me sad. nt

[snappyturtle]

14. K&R Thanks for posting. Bats are amazing critters...I love watching

them. Hope whatever the problem is, in NY,etc., that it can be remedied.

[truebrit71]

17. You're right Will....I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is ALREADY too late..

...and we are, right now, completely screwed, we just don't know it yet...

[progressoid]

18. Not to worry.

This is all cyclical. Or Jeebus will save us. Or something. Can't remember exactly.

I'll listen to Glen Beck and get back to you with the truth.

[PVnRT]

22. "Satan's retarded half-brother" - Stephen King on Glen Beck

[progressoid]

24. My first laugh of the day!

Thnx.

[donheld]

47. "Satan's retarded half-brother?"

I thought that was George W

[PVnRT]

48. Satan has more than one half-brother

[zbdent]

26. boy, are you mixed up about sex ...

it's "The birds and the bees" ... frogs, bees, and bats are just unnatural and goes against everything righteous and good in the Bible ...

[WilliamPitt]

28. Dogs and cats. Living together. Mass hysteria.

:)

[truebrit71]

35. "Yes your honour it's true. This man has no dick..."

...

[WilliamPitt]

36. NOBODY steps on a church in my town.

[truebrit71]

37. Ray, when somebody asks you if you're a God you say YES!!!

.

[WilliamPitt]

38. Back off, man. I'm a scientist.

:)

[truebrit71]

43. That's some twinkie...

.

[InvisibleTouch]

29. That's very sad. I love bats.

I was active with Bat Conservation International years ago, trying to promote a positive view of bats and educate people on how useful they are, how many mosquitoes they can eat per night, their social lives, etc. They have a very low reproductive rate (like sharks), which makes them especially vulnerable to disturbance. They're actually more closely related to primates than to rodents, which many people mistake them for ("flying rodents" they are not).

I put up a bat house in the yard, but never had anyone move in. :( Maybe it wasn't close enough to a source of water.

BCI web site is here, btw, for anyone who wants more info:

http://www.batcon.org

They sell various bat houses, and they used to sell construction plans for do-it-yourselfers, but I can't currently find those on the site. I'm sure the plans are out there, though.

[Lorien]

30. That's very serious. Without bats insect population will explode

crops could be decimated, and several plant species may go extinct (some plants-especially South of the equator, depend on bat digestive tracts to germinate their seeds. There would be no Amazon rain forest without bats).

[blues90]

32. Pretty sad stuff

Who knows what it could be , maybe monsanto crops where the insects begin the food chain and the crap gets into everything . We used to have ants everywhere and those roaches called palmetto bugs and the last two years i have not seen one . Not that I miss them but there is definetly something wrong here .

No one seems to care about the people in this country or anywhere else for that matter so who will care about the bats .

[gasperc]

33. hmm....I sense a trend, I bet the dinosaurs are next

the republicans I mean

[WilliamPitt]

34. Silly. There are no dinosaurs.

They aren't in the Bible, duh.

Neither are orangutans, for that matter. So they don't exist, either.

[gasperc]

40. my bad

but didn't Jesus ride into Bethlehem on a dinosaur? just asking

[gasperc]

42. Vast Antarctic Ice Shelf on Verge of Collapse (another diary up today)

Our summer of discontent. Maybe the overheated primary fight between Obama and Clinton is the real culprit?

[marions ghost]

39. the average person

has no idea how quickly some populations can crash...

[dweller]

44. slowly working the way down the food chain

to us.



guess it's too late for this.
dp

[southerncrone]

45. NOOOO! Not my beloved bats!

Some scientists believe the use of Round-Up (Monsato's mega product) is responsible for the bee problem.

[pleah]

49. K&R

Man made plagues? I quit using pesticides a long time ago. I have all kinds of critters in my yard.
Last year I only saw 2 honey bees, this year I have already seen 5. I hope this is not the end of these creatures.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

50. K&R, slight changes in temperatures (or seasons) allow some types of fungus a stronger foothold...

"Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control."

Check out this latest breaking news:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3242370

[libodem]

51. What a huge

stone cold drag! First the food chain, then the humans. I knew the day was coming when we would shit ourselves out of the petre ( i'm not sure how to spell peetree)dish. I do wonder how much Monsanto has to do with geneticly altering the food supply, changing the nature of pollens. I think mosquito abatement may be in overdrive. I've been concerned that whatever is capable of destroying one insect may not be specific to just that insect. In going after mosquitoes we might have gotten the bees, maybe the frogs? I also think that whom ever has the market of trucking the bees around the country for artificial pollination, does not give a rip if all the other bees drop dead. Solves the competition problem. Funny we didn't hear much about West Nile Virus, before mr bushole. That shit has been making it state to state for the last 8 years. I think we had a biological weapon tested on us. After all it's mostly the very young and elderly who die from it. Then they try scaring us up over bird flu to sell their Tamaflu. Poor bats. Dammit. Bet they ate mosquitoes with West Nile and Abatement poison. God, knows how far Depleted Uranium could blow in the wind, land in dust, and collect in caves. Better test those bats for radiation. Who knows?