Ever wonder about bat’s pest control services? We see evidence every morning that bats are at work for us, all night long.
We grow crops to attract moths; the females lay their eggs on our brassicas such as collard greens, curly kale, swiss chard, and cabbage. We allow the larvae to eat all they want of the nutritious greens and they soon become moths. Without bats to balance the numbers of crop pests, our food crops would take a beating.
The flight cage is full of moths nowadays and the rehabilitating bats are loving their hunting practice.
When moths hear echolocation of an approaching bat, millions of years of evolution kick in and they employ various defense mechanisms. In our aviary some fly erratically while others drop to the ground to evade the bats. Normally dropping works well as they hide in the grass, but in our fight cage they often drop into the bats’ drinking troughs. Each morning we go out to rescue the moths trapped by the surface tension of the water.
Soon the brassicas will have served their purpose. We’ve eaten lots this winter, but as the insects begin to ravage them in the spring, they form a bitter latex in their leaves that makes them unpalatable to the larvae, but also to us! Soon we will replace them with a cover crop, to fix nitrogen in the soil and protect the soil from the hot summer sun.
And we’ll plant the winter garden again in the fall.
Cycle of life.