BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s Bat Week, a time to shed a positive light on these heroes of the night, which help control pest populations, but are frequently misunderstood.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is encouraging you to do your part and help bats during this week.
Outdoor enthusiasts should avoid caves and mines during Fall and Winter to protect endangered and threatened bats. Six out of nine regional bat species hibernate in caves, making them vulnerable to disturbances and white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungus.
You can also keep clean water sources available and put up bat boxes to help keep a safe roosting area for bats that predators can’t reach.
“A lot of species of bat are under some sort of threat, so we need to promote conservation messages for bats across the world, including right here in New York… People also think they’re trying to fly into their hair and attack them, that’s not true. They eat a ton of pests and insects for us pests we don’t like, like mosquitoes, and they play a really important part in our ecosystem,” said DEC Wildlife Biologist Ashley Meyer.
To further help bats beyond Bat Week, the DEC suggests limiting tree removal to winter months and planting pollinator gardens in the Spring.
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