Keeping The Mosquito's Away (OT)

[Norm's Coupe]

...........

Edited September 8, 2009 by Norm's Coupe

[Dennis Hemingway]

Our son's family all have them and say that they work great, the mosquitos are going crazy in the Las Vegas area, with so many forecloseurs (sp) with pools.

Dennis:cool:

[BobT-47P15]

What WILL they think of next???

[BobT-47P15]

Back in college days, I once bought a 57 Ford convertible that had

very worn out rings. It smoked so much, it looked like one of those

trucks the city used to send around to fog for misquitoes.

[billwillard]

Norm, Your wife must love you. Making her go out in the yard and get bitten while you hog up all the off.

Bill

[Don Coatney]

Amazing Bat Facts

A single little brown bat (myotis) can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and is one of the world's longest-lived mammals for its size, with life spans of almost 40 years.

Bats are more closely related to humans than they are to rodents. Several studies indicate that the Old World fruit bats and flying foxes may actually be descended from early primates.

There are over 1000 known species of bats, just about a fourth of all mammal species. Most of these bats would fit in the palm of your hand.

Most bats give birth to only a single pup each year, making them very vulnerable to extinction. They are the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand which weighs about as much as a dime.

Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six feet.

Bats are very clean animals, and groom themselves almost constantly (when not eating or sleeping) to keep their fur clean.

The pallid bat of western North America is immune to the stings of the scorpions and centipedes upon which it feeds.

A single colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer.

The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave in Texas, eat 250 tons of insects every night. They sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tailwinds that carry them over long distances, at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.

These Mexican free-tailed bat mothers can find and nurse their own young, even in huge colonies where many millions of pups cluster at up to 500 per square foot. The youngsters can be as curious and playful as many other animal babies.

A nursing little brown bat mother can eat more than her body weight nightly (up to 4,500 insects).

Many important agricultural plants, like bananas, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.

Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3000th of normal without bat pollinators, such as the Mexican long-tongued bat.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, most bats have very good eyesight, have excellent echolocation so they do not become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit disease to other animals or humans.

Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair protruding only two millimeters above a pond's surface.

African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet.

Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the famous organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona.

Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics.

Vampire bats adopt orphans, and are one of the few mammals known to risk their own lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates.

An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients and stroke victims.

All mammals can contract rabies; however, even the less than half of 1% of bats that do, normally bite only in self-defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them.

Nearly 40% of American bat species are in severe decline or already listed as endangered or threatened. Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide.

Providing bat houses can help build the populations of many valuable bat species that eat many crop-damaging insects, such as cucumber and June beetles, stink bugs, leafhoppers and corn worm moths. Bat houses furnish places for bats to roost, hibernate and raise young, in addition to the dwindling number of natural sites available to them.

Red bats, which live in tree foliage throughout most of North America, can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees during winter hibernation.

Little brown bats can reduce their heart rate to 20 beats per minute and can stop breathing altogether for 48 minutes at a time while hibernating. They may hibernate for more than seven months if left undisturbed, but can starve if they are awakened too many times during the winter, which causes them to run out of energy reserves before spring.

Tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders.

The Honduran white bat is snow white with a yellow nose and ears. It cuts large leaves to make "tents" that protect its small colonies from jungle rains, one of 15 other species known to make tents.

Frog eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs. Frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult-to-locate calls.

Moths are also known to take evasive action when they hear the echolocation calls of bats, sometimes plummeting to the ground in an attempt to escape.

Male Gambian epauletted bats of Africa have pouches in their shoulders that contain large, showy patches of white fur, which they flash during courtship to attract mates. The Chapin's free-tailed bats have big tufts of white fur on top of their heads, which they fluff up during courtship.

Two famous bats from literature are Stellaluna, the young fruit bat from the enchanting children's book by Janell Cannon, and Sunshine, the friendly little bat whose rescue was described in the book "The Bat In My Pocket", by Amanda Lollar of Bat World.

[Jims50chrysler]

I could have used that on Friday night when we were camping...I finaly got up just before daybreak and slept in the car for a couple hours, made me realize that I am not 18 anymore.

Jim

[Plymouthy Adams]

the supplimental dose of a vitamin B1 and the use of garlic as a natural repellant..I do not use the vitamin but it is highly recommended even by the government for outdoor activity/duty...I do however consume more than my share of garlic and this is in nautral form not that odorless variety in a capsule..this stuff works wonders..not to say I don't get an ocassional bite, but usually I am not eated alive like most folks about me..plus garlic has other health benefits...others may say I am so full of #^&@ that no self respecting misquito would have anything to do with me..whatever works..bothers me not..

[Olddaddy]

One of the many things I've built over the years are bat houses. A colony of bats near your house and mosquitoes are not a problem...........the problem is I've never sold one ever. People do not like bats, which is too bad, they are really great little critters.

[Merle Coggins]

I've often thought about putting up a bat house in an open area back behind my house. The land is owned by a limestone quarry and is buffer zone between them and my residential neighborhood. I don't believe anyone would even know it's there, or care if it was. But how do you attract the bats to it once you put it up? Or does it work like "Field of Dreams... "If you build it they will come."

Merle

[Dennis Hemingway]

We have a lot of old mine shafts around the area so we get a lot of bats flying around at night. When we had an above ground pool we get bats caught in the filter a lot.

Dennis:eek:

[Don Coatney]

the supplimental dose of a vitamin B1 and the use of garlic as a natural repellant..I do not use the vitamin but it is highly recommended even by the government for outdoor activity/duty...I do however consume more than my share of garlic and this is in nautral form not that odorless variety in a capsule..this stuff works wonders..not to say I don't get an ocassional bite, but usually I am not eated alive like most folks about me..plus garlic has other health benefits...others may say I am so full of #^&@ that no self respecting misquito would have anything to do with me..whatever works..bothers me not..

Geez Tim I did not know that stinky garlicl repels bats:rolleyes: I never touch the stuff myself but I do smoke tabaccy in my pipe. That also works as a skito repellant.

What is the difference in a respecting misquito and a non-respecting misquito? Do respecting skitos tithe up without claiming a tax deduction?

[55 Fargo]

Geez Tim I did not know that stinky garlicl repels bats:rolleyes: I never touch the stuff myself but I do smoke tabaccy in my pipe. That also works as a skito repellant.

What is the difference in a respecting misquito and a non-respecting misquito? Do respecting skitos tithe up without claiming a tax deduction?

Apparently Listerine is a great Mosquito repellant, cures the garlic smell too:D

The mosquitos are so big, bad aand plentiful around here, the tropics have nothing on us.

West Nile Virus happens every year, how these little buggers live through a -30 winter is beyond me.

Seriously, in the countryside around Winnipeg, it's so bad you cannot sit outside without repellant, or spraying your yard or some device, Gazebos are the best answer. In the Cty like Winnipeg, Selkirk etc, they spray and do larvaciding, cept in the Yuppie areas, where the green people don't want malathion being sprayed, and every body gets revved up over it.........Fred

[55 Fargo]

Merle' date='

I believe the Bat houses are like bird houses. Like you said, if you build it, they will come. But.........it has to be built correctly and placed correctly. I did see something on the internet about building bat houses to attract bats. Do a search and it will tell you what you need to know, if you want to attract them.

It's just like bird houses. Certain types of houses with certain size entrance holes, etc., attract different types of birds.

Don't think you'll have trouble attracting them in your area based on what you said. It only takes one bat to find that house you build before more come in.[/quote']

You are right the corect house, the right location, and of course you need the Bats, if there ain't no Bats, they ain't movin in.

We have ton's of bats in my area. Funny thing, this is a cooler summer here, mostly 70s temps, hardly any moths, and I gewt those big huge hHawk Moths, but not man this year.

I am not even using my central AC in the house, it has been so cool at night down to 50 or so every night, and 74 during the day, normally it's 85 to 90 humid during the day, and 64 at night, but not this year....

[Merle Coggins]

I overheard a couple of skeeters talking the other day... One said, "Should we eat him here or carry him back to the nest?" The other replied, "I think we should eat him here. If we carry him back to the nest the big ones will get him."

[Plymouthy Adams]

sounds like the ones here on the East coast..they pumped 125 gallon of JP5 into one at Charleston AF Base before they realized their mistake...

[TodFitch]

...snip... The other night one got in the house and I saw him on the wall just over the kitchen sink. So.....I swatted him to kill it. What a mess! He must have just sucked all the blood out of someone or something. ...snip...

I believe you have the gender wrong: As I understand it, its the female mosquitos that go for blood.

[BobT-47P15]

Some will say that holds true for other species as well.......

[Tim Frank]

Some will say that holds true for other species as well.......

Yup, Rudyard Kipling I think....

[Niel Hoback]

Or was it Krusty the Klown?

[Deano's P15]

An easy way to keep the skeeters away is to put a dryer sheet (Downey or whatever) inside your collar, or under a baseball cap.