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School touts using `bat houses' in the fight against bugs

The faculty at an elementary school in central Taiwan touted the efficacy of their "bat houses" yesterday. The bat houses were first set up on campus several years ago to fight bugs, and the faculty say that thousands of mosquitoes have been eaten each night ever since.

Chang Heng-chia (張恆嘉), a teacher at Cheng Cheng Elementary School in Yunlin, said on a local television news broadcast that they decided six years ago to set up bat houses -- wooden cages in which bats can reside -- to lure the nocturnal predators when the numbers of mosquitoes and other bugs around the school rose to intolerable levels.

Chang, who has the nickname "bat ace" after years of caring for the bats, said they got the idea from books explaining how insect populations can be reduced in a more eco-friendly way.

The first population to move into the bat houses was a group of Japanese house bats (pipistrellus abramus), a common species in East Asia, Chang said. They were later joined by myotis formosus flavus, a species endemic to Taiwan.

"The bats leave during winter and return when the temperature rises," Chang said. "Sometimes, in the summer, there are hundreds of bats inhabiting the houses at the same time. On a rough estimate, a bat can eat several hundred, or even a thousand, bugs every night."

Chang said the "bat method" is an effective and natural means of fighting the pests. In addition, the school's pupils have had a better chance to observe and understand these animals up close.
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