Going Batty

     What are those strange looking bird houses?  This summer, campers who participated in our nature programs constructed 15 bat houses for the park.  Have you ever noticed that we don’t have many mosquitoes at Tappan Lake Park?  For that, you can thank our bats!  With the help of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, the park embarked on a program to reduce the amount of bat/human conflicts.  The best solution is to give the bats a better place to live and raise their young, instead of inside someone’s camper or building attic.

     This is the time of year when bats are beginning to try and find a nice cave to hibernate for the winter.  We won’t know the full impact of our efforts until the females start to have pups next spring.  Hopefully, we can help to increase the population of these beneficial insect eaters.  For more information you can check out the following resources on bats, bat houses, and concerns facing future bat populations:

http://www.batcon.org/

http://ocvn.osu.edu/news/white-nosed-syndrome-deadly-disease-bats-osu-extension-releases-new-fact-sheet