by Alessandro Ferrua
Bat box is an artificial home created for the bats. Today many municipalities are installing them. The reason? Mosquitoes! That’s the reason to give a shelter to these nice animals. Before, people hated them, but now they are a remedy against the overpopulation of mosquitoes in the cities. The presence of bats is also an environmental indicator, because they’re very sensitive to pollutants. Therefore, restoring a kind of environmental balance, we can also solve a problem for human people. In fact, once, there were more bats and fewer mosquitos than now. The perception of increased insects caused not only a cure for human well-being, but also for the whole nature.
Despite the presence of many organisms in the diet, every bat can capture approximately 2,000 mosquitoes per night, so they are real insect exterminators. Unfortunately tiger mosquito flies (and stings) during the day so it can not be captured by the bat.
In Fiesole, an Italian town near Florence, it’s a long time that bat boxes are used. The idea to using this natural system to fight mosquitoes is born because of the lack of results by using chemicals. Through an adequate information campaign addressed to citizens it was simple to spread knowledge about this method of prevention against mosquitoes. The extraordinary result of the conference, organized for this purpose, persuaded citizens to build themselves a lot of own bat boxes. There is even a supermarket chain (Coop Italia) that sells them, together with a guide, to have a better information about “our little friends”. This year there are also complementary comics, with stories about bats, distributed to reach children too.
Bats can also find a safe shelter in Riccione, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast in Italy. Here a lot of little boxes, high on the trees, to protect them from predators, has been installed «There are bat boxes in those neighborhoods inhabited by numerous mosquitoes, because of the presence of parks and ponds», said Dr. Balducci (Environment Office of the Municipality) and «no campaigns have been organized for citizens, but only articles in newspapers and on news services after placing, however the population is satisfied because has enjoyed a significant reduction of mosquitoes». The effectiveness of the enterprise was sufficient to push people to accept willingly bats as neighbors, animals always unwelcome due to unfounded superstitions. This fact has been told by several newspapers and national newscasts. Other experiments are underway in Asti (Piedmont) and in Rome, while other Italian towns want to move in the same direction, hoping to solve the big problem of troublesome insects respecting nature.
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