No stupid stranger behavior - ever.

[laeshanin]

I have bats in my loft space over the bathroom and I love to stand outside on a summer evening and watch them. They are just such amazing little critters.

Said great tabby idiot is currently trying to tell me that I should be fussing her and is rolling on the keyboard...bloody cats! 

[nectere]

oo I like bats. I used to go on rescue missions every year where I worked. There would be dozens and dozens of baby bats lying about in the parking garage, it was sad. Many of the little critters were only days or hours old.

After some research and data gathering we finally figured out what was killing/making them sick. Being in the south, we have a bit of a mosquito problem, and where I worked it was right next to a bayou, thus every year maintenance crews would come spraying for mosquitoes. The crew would spray the mosquitoes so the mosquitoes wouldn't be able to reproduce, then the mother bats would eat them and even though the poison wasn't enough to make the adult bats sick, it was enough to pass through the mothers' milk and into the baby bats who clung for life on their moms underbelly.

So the baby bats were being poisoned and would become too weak to hold on to the mothers in flight, thus all the baby bats lying about the garage. My boss and I would go out early in the morning and pick up all the ones that looked viable, many were furless and about the size of my pinkie. Then I would take them all in to the wildlife refuge where the bat ladies would take care of them. Generally only about 20% made it. I was bringing in upwards of 10 a day most days in the early season. There wasn't much we could do about it, the maintenance crews weren't about to stop spraying for mosquitoes and the city certainly wasn't going to make them.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Would be better, though, if they just used a poison that would kill the mosquitoes outright, then the bats would look elsewhere for food.

Even better to encourage more bats to the area so they'd eat all the mosquitoes!   Sounds to me like the natural balance in the area has gone wrong.

[nectere]

Something was off because the bat season kept coming too early in the year, around April and May which is when the crews sprayed for anticipation of the summer mosquito season. Typically the bat season should start late may and into the summer months, but our bats where reproducing in the spring.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Global Warming?  Maybe the bats need to go on the pill until summer!

[laeshanin]

Would be better, though, if they just used a poison that would kill the mosquitoes outright, then the bats would look elsewhere for food.

Even better to encourage more bats to the area so they'd eat all the mosquitoes!   Sounds to me like the natural balance in the area has gone wrong.

Yup. On both counts.

Poor bats. They are fast becoming endangered due to us. That's the problem with being an evolutionary specialist as you fit too neatly into your ecological niche. I mean, look at Homo Sapiens, the best generalist around who can manipulate any environment to suit themselves.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Along with rats and cockroaches!  Does that also make us vermin?

[laeshanin]

Heh  You said it, and I think it's a valid if somewhat harsh point.

[bluecatvon]

yes we are vermins haha. i've always favored animals to humans

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, we're the only species I know of which is capable of wiping out whole groups of its own kind!

[laeshanin]

And of any other kind, indiscriminately and with as little regard as possible to the consequences. With the help of some ill-gotten money we can make certain the developing nations stay down and cheap and they can provide all the labour we need to live our materialistic "just add water lives". The ecosystem can just go hang too, because what do a few bugs, plants and animals matterwhen sacrificed to the great god Greed... 

Oops, ranting there a little bit. Sorry. Well, no I'm not.

[ZephyrZodiac]

You're probably preaching to the converted, but what the heck!  We all need a place to let off a bit of steam!

[Zeljka]

I didn't get the patch but I use admire to build up friendships all the time and have never had a problem with jealousy over it. Of course, I have tons of hacks and mods, but I don't have any that touch jealousy as I find that too unrealistic.

I don't kill non-biting bugs, except earwigs... then again, I don't live in a place where roaches are common.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Earwigs can actually give a very nasty bite!

[Zeljka]

ewww, really?

I knew there was a reason I hated them so much.

[laeshanin]

Oh yes, but they don't crawl into ears. Not unless you lie on the ground outside in damp leaf litter regularly... 

Other eco rant due to severe pissy mood. Sigh. Too much info caused rage and frustration.