Bats: The unexpected green machines
I awoke in the dark of night to the sound of flapping wings and something sizable flying around and around my bedroom. “There’s a bat in here,” my husband said in a half-muffled voice from the bathroom. I recalled I’d gotten up earlier to let the dog out and left the front door ajar. One of our resident bats had come calling.
Terrified the bat would hit me if I got up, I crawled across the floor to the bathroom. “What now?” we said to each other. Jim picked up a large towel and went back into the bedroom to throw it over the bat. Then we brought the bundle into the shower to see exactly what we’d captured.
Inch by inch, we rolled back the towel. Suddenly a tiny face appeared, hissing through a mouth of truly terrifying teeth. This curious creature with its turned-up nose and big round ears exhibited awesome ferocity for something so small.
After I learned that a single bat could consume up to 600 mosquitoes in a single night, we never discouraged them from nesting in our eaves. Though they are largely invisible, we got a good look at our tenants after disabling our attic fan in the midst of summer. A brown, furry creature with folded wings crawled out of a slot along the ridge beam. While they are rare in daylight, we saw our first bat in full view as it desperately tried to cool off. We realized that he’d nested there, but with the fan out of commission, he defied eons of genetic programming to face the noon light.
These are just two incidents of bats that I’ve observed, and I am forever learning more about these too-often-maligned creatures. Forever burdened with an association with vampires and blood sucking, these small creatures of North America are in fact among our most valuable insectivores. I have seen them return night after night to a grove of tamarix trees at the exact time the mosquitoes rise from the leaves to fly at dusk. Oddly enough, small desert falcons join the bats for a nightly air show of feeding on insects.
However, bats do more than consume insects. They are vital to the pollination of many exotic plants. They burrow into typically large white flowers to suck from the generous nectarines at the base of the bell-shaped throats. They are known to grasp stiff parts of the flower with their claws while they hover and feed. Botanists consider the residual claw marks evidence of pollination. Bat-pollinated flowers also bear unusually large numbers of stamens because these animals actually eat those parts during their visit, and in the process, gather even more pollen to distribute.
Pollen that catches on the hairs of a bat’s body allow them to fertilize a surprisingly large number of plants in a single night. Studies show that one bat can carry about 1.5 million grains of pollen each evening, which translates to 30 different flower visits. These flowers often emit a strangely musky fragrance – not floral by any means – to lure the bats by scent. But the bats obtain yet another food bonus. Day-flying insects may choose to overnight inside the flowers. When bats visit after dark, they gobble up this welcome source of protein.
Bats have difficulty flying through brush or forest; so bat-pollinated flowers are often at the highest point of the plant. The saguaro cactus with its crown of white blossoms is a perfect example. Other desert plants such as agave stalks rise above the brush or tree canopy to emit their scent in a free and open location that is easy for bats to spot. An African species of bat has been documented to travel more than two hours each way in a single night to reach its desired food plants.
Some cacti have further adapted by bearing flowers without spines along their stems. Spines could prove dangerous to the poor-sighted bats.
As we all discover a new appreciation for living green and supporting the ecology, don’t relegate bats to the world of dark and evil folklore. Celebrate their vital role in the world of flowers, and as one of the earth’s “greenest” insect controllers.
