Scout Builds Bat Houses for Park
Aug. 19–A Danville Eagle Scout is helping take a bite out of the West Nile virus outbreak by building bat houses in an Antioch park to attract the mosquito-eating mammals.
The nine bat houses he erected in Contra Loma Park this week will hopefully attract hundreds of bats who eat the disease-carrying mosquitoes as part of their insect diet.
While bats do carry other diseases harmful to humans, eating mosquitoes does not make them carriers of West Nile virus, said David Jameson, a biologist from Danville who served until recently on the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control board.
There is no guarantee the bats will take immediately to their new quarters, but scout Wali Jahangiri, 17, certainly hopes so.
“I consider myself an environmentalist, and wanted to do something for the environment,” he said. “I want to dispel the myths about bats, and I was curious about the subject.”
“Some people are scared of bats. But bat houses will counter the threat of West Nile virus,” he said.
Because some bats can eat 600 to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour, he hopes a thriving bat population in the park will reduce the mosquito infestation. The rubbery-winged creatures are valued for their ability to keep down insect blight, and are often employed by farmers to rid their crops of unwanted bugs.
Jameson said bats are shy, reclusive creatures that like to roost under bridges, in church towers and other warm, sheltered places. Most of them migrate to warmer southern climes in the winter, and hang out here March through early October, said Walnut Creek’s Bob Wisecarver, a bat aficionado who builds bat houses all over the area.
Pam Nave, wildlife rehabilitation supervisor at Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, said there are 13 species of bats in the Bay Area including the Mexican free-tail bat, California myotis and Yuma myotis.
Most of these bats have bodies the size of a small mouse, weighing 31/2 to 28 grams each. Bats are drawn to areas where there is water, vegetation and insects. Free-tail bats form very large colonies, such as a colony of 1 million bats in Texas. The little mammals that give some people the creeps are relatively harmless and avoid human contact, Nave said.
Bats feed from dusk to early morning when their food source — moths, mosquitoes, flies and the like — are prevalent.
Jahangiri, a San Ramon Valley High School grad, was searching for a good Eagle Scout project, and contacted East Bay Regional Park District for ideas. They suggested bat houses which were needed in Contra Loma Park. The houses would provide an appealing habitat for these much-maligned creatures.
He set about studying bat house designs, reading up on bats and obtaining materials for his project. The park district provided about $500 for materials, and he also obtained a donation from a Martinez lumber company.
He built the bat houses at home, then transported the 50-pound contraptions to the park where friends would help him set them in the ground. The houses consist of three shells or boxes, one within the other, with tops and sides but no bottom. They are two stories high, mounted on steel poles. Ventilation holes point north and south for warmth and ventilation. Every inch of the wood is caulked.
“Bats don’t like whistling wind or water on them,” he said. “They don’t particularly like trees. They want to be in a stuffy, humid environment.”
East Bay Parks volunteer coordinator Sharon Safas said that Contra Loma naturalist Janet Gomes had asked the district for owl and bat boxes at the park to increase the wildlife there.
The insides of the bat boxes are grooved so the bats have a place to cling. There also are guano catchers at the bottom of each pole so naturalists can check if the bat houses are being used without disturbing the little mammals.
—–
To see more of the Contra Costa Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bayarea.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.