How Do Bats Help Us?

    Listen to a Public Service Announcment about Bats                                                                                                    
           

Bats eat many insects. One brown bat can catch 600 - 1200 Mosquitoes in just an hour at night. Remember mosquitoes carry Malaria, Yellow Fever, and West Nile virus. Bats help make a healthy environment.

The 20 million Mexican free-tail bats from Bracken Cave, Texas
can eat 250 tons of insects in one night!

With bats eating all those insects we won't need so many poisons, and that's healthier for  all of us!

Bats Help Farmers.

A colony of just 150 big brown bats can eat 18 million or more rootworms each summer. This saves crops from damage.

Many bats spread seeds for new plants and trees. Tropical bats are important to rain forests.  They pollinate flowers
and drop seeds for many trees and bushes. The Baobab tree would die out without them. Wild bananas, avocados, chocolate, agave, mangos, nuts, dates and figs, all depend on bats for pollination and seed dropping.

In the southwestern part of the United States, nectar-feeding bats are the main pollinators of the giant saguaro cactus.
By helping to rebuild cut forests, bats are also making sure other animals continue to have homes, shelter and food.

The Vampire bat might help scientists. The saliva from the vampire bat is being studied to see if someday a new medicine can be found to help people with heart problems.

We can protect bats by telling others how helpful and useful they are. But remember, bats are wild and you should never touch them.


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