Posted on 10/18/2016 8:23:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"I'm not saying that it's the answer to Zika by any means, but it's a gesture of goodwill to the many people who were so upset about neurotoxins being sprayed in Miami Beach," said Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez.
With Halloween just days away, a swarm of bats could converge upon Miami Beach to help the city fight the spread of Zika.
Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez has introduced a proposal that would use the winged mammals to eat the infected mosquitoes.
The commission is set to vote on the plan Wednesday. Gonzalez says the move would be an environmentally friendly alternative to the controversial pesticide naled.
She adds that "bats eat one thousand mosquitoes a day". "I'm not saying that it's the answer to Zika by any means, but it's a gesture of goodwill to the many people who were so upset about neurotoxins being sprayed in Miami Beach," said Gonzalez.
The commissioner says after the city began its defense against Zika, many residents approached her and asked if the commission would consider using bats as a defense.
The effort would lure bats to the city by building bat houses in the Zika zone.
"There are not going to be bats flying all over the City of Miami Beach, but we might put a couple bat houses in some parks and some neighborhoods have already come to me and requested them," said Gonzalez.
Miami-Dade County's decision to use naled stirred controversy in Miami Beach.
Protesters rallied in front of City Hall for days.
Even the city's mayor Phillip Levine said he was not comfortable with the use of naled. Commissioner Mike Greico said the aerial assault of mosquitoes could be a threat to everyone.
With the mounting discontent over the use of naled, Gonzalez says she's optimistic and believes the bat proposal will be a popular project.
Holy cow, Batman!
I’ve heard of this before.
Makes sense.
.
Lemme guess? None of the complainants are pregnant? Here's the only 'gesture' they deserve:
Bats are terrific at mosquito removal. Too bad that millions of them are killed by the wind turbines the envirowackos have foisted upon us.
DDT will do it, and there’s really nothing wrong with that wide-band bug killer. It’s time we took the wraps off the criminal propaganda that gave rise to banning of DDT by governmental heterozetesis, the ignoring of all the reasonable arguments that testify to its safe and effective use.
Would consuming infected mosquitoes enable bats to transmit the virus?
That’s not really a problem, since once all the infected mosquitos are dead....
You’d introduce the bat’s natural predators to kill the bats.
Rabid weasels!
There used to be bats in the belfry (not kidding) of a church near me here in MA.
Thousands would all come out at dusk—it was an awesome sight.
I left the area but assume they are still there.
.
But only when used ate safe levels of course, that it did harm to bird before had more to do with spraying it at at least 100 times more concentrated than needed.
Your lack of proof for your argument leads one to suspect that the very same approach invoked by the protestors led legislators suffering from heteroketesis but basking in the light of their misplaced compassion to ban it. Where is the citation of supporting data fot your thesis? I offer none for my position. Prove me wrong.
DDT could!!!!
Dade and Broward County are urbanized all the way to the Everglades, so there aren't all that many mosquitoes to begin with.
If you release swarms of bats around Miami Beach, they'll just hang out in the fruit trees or around the dumpsters at Publix.
This is a common misconception
Why didn’t they come with you?
Conclusion:
We definitely agree with the assertion that bats will feed upon mosquitoes, but based upon numerous studies we believe it has been shown that bats are opportunistic feeders and are not an effective or reliable form of mosquito control.
Our concern is the misinformation that comes from taking one sentence out of an entire study and then making wide sweeping assumptions that may affect the publicsâ perception on what are effective mosquito control tactics.
So Miami and parts north were just hit with a humongous massive windstorm and somehow the mosquitoes stayed put???
I would expect the Zika mosquitoes to be everywhere from Palm Beach to Key Largo by now but the citizenry is still focused only on a few Miami neighborhoods? I find that incredible.
I lived in Dade County for 45 years, and never saw a bat. Bats were imported from Texas for the "Bat Tower" in the Florida Keys. They stayed a day, and all flew off.
Over-rated, unfortunately:
http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/mosquitosite/preventing-mosquito-bites/bats-and-birds/
Might work, might not. Bats are great, but they can be picky about their roosts.
“Why didnt they come with you?”
—
They’re liberals.
.
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