I recently read in the local newspaper that a resident of a Retirement Village that backs onto a swamp complained that a bat flew across her back yard and pooped on an item of clothing that was hanging on her washing line.
The Retirement Village was built near the swamp to take advantage of the micro-climate that the water and high thick tree canopy provided. (Not to mention the magic of seeing shadows emerge every night on dusk to wheel their way across the sky towards blossom filled trees, the melodious song of frogs and crickets, as well as water birds through the night. Although since the council in their dubious lack of wisdom installed a weir, the Magpie Geese no longer come. Hmmmmm…)
Due to the unwelcomed bat plop, the woman in the Retirement Village now demanded that council clear the bats out of the swamp.
Ummmm… I had a ‘P-plater’ (holder of a probationery driver’s license) cut me off in a lane while I was driving one day… does that mean that ‘P-platers’ should be moved out of the suburbs and forced to drive cars in a designated area? Or maybe all ‘P-platers’ should be culled?
Here’s some facts about bats you may not know:
Flying Foxes (the now-maligned clothing plopper) are the major and essential pollinators of our Australian native forest trees. These warm-blooded, intelligent, and sometimes clothes plopping mammals pollinate thousands of trees nightly, covering enormous areas. Similarly, throughout the world similar bats are the primary, and in some cases, sole pollinators or seed dispersers for forest trees whose annual harvests are valued in excess of $100,000,000. So, I guess bats are valuable not only to the environment, but timber industries too. And it’s been reported that without flying foxes, many Australian trees, including some eucalypt, may not survive – and therefore neither will our koala, glider and possum populations.
Sorry complaining lady, but your G-string, voluminous underwear or flanny nightie has just taken second place in the affairs of state!
Insectivorous Bats – the insect feeders – keep the insect and pest population to a manageable size. Without these little guys doing their important job, venturing outside as a warm-blooded human would be a challenge. Did you know that some bats can eat up to half their body weight in mosquitos every night? That’s a lot of mozzies you don’t need to slap at during the family BBQ.
Unfortunately, due to the Government’s failure to protect certain flying foxes in Australia (by removing certain species of flying fox from the protected fauna list), and the ‘yobbo-mentality’ of some people who, scarily, have gun licenses – flying fox numbers are dwindling at a rapid pace. We can all help a little by:
- learning as much as possible about bats (you’ll discover they are great parents, very affectionate, and highly intelligent)
- reporting any cruelty you see or hear of
- contacting your local wildlife rescue centre if you find an injured or sick bat
- taking part in any bat monitoring programs (organised observation programs that include counting bats as they fly out of roots)
- stop using netting over fruit trees. Bats get caught in these and damage their wings. Bats are primarily blossom-feeders. Fruit plays only a very minor role in their diet. Simply pick the fruit you grow as it begins to ripen… and leave a couple of ripe ones for the bats (you’re surely not going to starve if you don’t eat that one or two paw paws, etc.!)
And now for some facts on ‘P-platers’ that you may not know:
They’ll learn. Just smile and accept. Most of us oldies were all there once!
Now, back to the woman with the bat poop problem. There are a couple of solutions she could try:
1. Don’t leave your washing on the line at night.
Simple! As she was retired, and from my understanding (as she spoke of her favourite past-time being sitting at home and reading a good book) she was home most days. Certainly enough time to hang the washing out in the morning, and bring it in during the day.
2. Re-wash that item of clothing.
I know this works – as we have flying foxes visit our paw paw trees each night, and I’ve had the occasional bat poop land on some washing. (I think I average about two or three unwanted bat ploppies a year – nothing to cause a ‘let’s drive out the bats’ mania!)
You can make an environmentally friendly pre-wash stain remover by mixing 2 tablespoons of cloudy ammonia and 1 tablespoon salt with a bucket of warm water. Soak the bat plopped item in the bucket overnight and rinse with cold water the next day.
3. If the plopped on item of clothing is white and you’re really concerned about staining – use an environmentally friendly whitener.
You might like to check out Eco Store’s Naturally Active Pure Oxygen Whitener that, again, has no nasty chemicals, is not tested on animals, GE free and comes in a recyclable container.
Basically, we need bats! Our environment needs bats! And the future of many eucalyptus feeding animals need bats!
Long live bats and P-platers!