Students
build shelters for nocturnal flyers
One brown bat
can eat 1,000 mosquitoes an hour. Pesticides can kill just as many,
but with more damage and costs. Washington state high school students
are working to harness the appetites of these natural predators.
Six Cascade
High School students built three bat hotels, big enough for 50 bats
each, near the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery along the Icicle Creek
Nature Trail this past spring. The project is an experiment in natural
pest control to curb pesticide use, improve fish habitat, and provide
relief from mosquito bites and the threat of West Nile virus. “We’ll
just see how well things go,” said 18-year-old Blaine Dawson.
“We don’t want to make too many until we see if the
bats like our designs.”
The students
used their advanced biology period once a week to focus on the project.
“It’s hands-on experience,” said Pedro Barrera,
19. “I’m going to remember that I was a part of this
project. I learn by doing it, instead of learning it out of a book.”
The student
team did not know what they were signing up for when they agreed
to join a partnership between their school, Washington State University
Extension, and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. Barrera
said he associated bats with rabies. Dawson knew bats were pests
that liked to nest in chimneys and houses. The boys warmed up to
bats as they researched their subjects, especially after discovering
the mosquito statistic.
Armed with
new-found knowledge, the team staked out three spots in the first
quarter-mile of the Icicle Creek Nature Trail. They looked for both
live and dead trees at least 25 feet above ground for protection
against predators such as raccoons, Dawson said. The students also
chose open fields near slow-moving waters where mosquitoes frequent.
Ramon Ramirez
and Hugo Vasquez, both 17, worked on the first bat hotel in the
fish hatchery woodshop. They attached wire mesh to the box’s
ceiling for the bats to hang from and sleep, and left the bottom
open, like a Japanese lantern.
“This
is the first baby step,” said Cody Stitt, program assistant
for the WSU Extension 4-H Forestry Education Program. As an advisor
for the project, he also emphasizes community education in the form
of radio interviews, interpretive trail signs, and presentations
to school and fish hatchery administrators. “Eventually we
want to gather tracking data—find out what kind of bat species
we attract, and what type of habitat they like.”
Future Cascade
High School students will build on what is being done in Leavenworth.
A similar project is being conducted in Cashmere, and Kevin Powers,
4-H forestry education program director, plans to implement two
more in the Entiat and Manson school districts. “A big part
of this project is looking at the sustainability piece, what we
can do to carry on year after year,” Powers said.
This article
was based on an online newspaper release at http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20070510/NEWS04/705100394/1002.
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