Bats are so underrated. A recent study shows that these winged – and sometimes loathed – mammals are just the ticket for stripping pests off organic crops. University of Michigan researchers experimented with bats on a shade-grown coffee plantation in Chiapas, Mexico.

The plantations don't use pesticides, but both bats and birds provide protection from devastating pest explosions. Birds, we knew about already. But the test plots (which used combinations of birds, bats and control areas) showed that in the wet season, bats do most of the work. In fact, when bats were excluded from a plot the bug density went up by 84%.

Bats' incredible role in natural pest management has been overlooked for several reasons. One reason is that people often think bats just eat bugs out of the air. But scientists found that bats actually wait for the sound of insects chewing on a plant, then swiftly go in for the kill.

Other facts:

• Bats can eat more than half their body weight
• Bats pollinate wild plants and disperse fruit seeds
• There are at least 45 species of bats on the Chiapas coffee plantation
• There are 200 types of insects feeding on coffee plants

Source: Science Centric (University of Michigan)

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Coffee Vending Machines
written by Coffee, December 04, 2008

Because that's what we all need! right? coffe!

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment