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(ATMoB:Discuss) Birds and Bats and Fish
What a popular subject!
Purple Martins is what the Audobon society will recommend, although studies
show that they don't eat many mosquitos and I am doubtful of Bats as well.
Bats seem to like larger insects like moths.
I would prefer Bats over Martins. Mosquitos tend to stay low to the ground and are
most active when there isn't much wind, especially right around sunrise and sunset.
Martins don't hunt at night and since different Mosquitos have different behaviours,
we would want night hunters. Bats tend to stay 50 feet off the ground and I find it
hard to beleive they make much difference to the mosquito population.
A much better idea might be to get "Mosquito Fish" and stock local water sources. The
life cycle of a Mosquito is very short (a few weeks maybe?) and often there aren't very
many Mosquitos in swampy areas because there are fish that eat the larvae. It is the places
that are in-between - short lived puddles - that have the most Mosquitos (or places where
all the fish have been killed with DDT?).
- George Roberts
http://www.pobox dot com/~gr
emailto:gr (a) pobox dot com
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