Like a Bat Out of Hell
Well, not exactly - but those guys really know how to fly!
We’ve been having fun the past few nights watching the bats come out around dusk to eat up all the blood-thirsty mosquitos. We’ve only counted four. We don’t really know anything about bats - but we prefer to call them the bat fam - since it looks like a mommy and daddy bat and two youngsters. Until we did some research, we thought with all the mosquitos we have, they may have to call in a few more relatives.
They zoom around the yard just like the movie-monster bats flying high in the sky and then swooping down about two or three feet off the ground where there must be a good supply of mosquitos for them to gobble up. They know we’re out there, but don’t seem to really care about the two humans watching from the hot tub. They probably think we’re batty!
So, I did a little research on them and found that they are mammals and one of the only true FLYING mammals in the world. Research said flying squirrels don’t count - sorry Rocky!
They also happen to be primary predators of night-flying insects, including many of the most damaging agricultural pests and others that bedevil the rest of us.
More than two-thirds of bat species hunt insects, and they have healthy appetites. A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour, while a pregnant or lactating female bat typically eats the equivalent of her entire body weight in insects each night.
So, I guess the little party of four really didn’t need to bring in any relatives to finish the job after all.
