Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-12-01

they are not interested, will not read,
and, if they did, they would not prac-
tice what is recommended.
Among the natural enemies of the
night-flying moths, beetles, mosquitoes,
etc. there is none to effective as the
bat. Bats may exist in large numbers,
yet people be unconscious of their ex-
istence. because their flight is noiseless
and. being at night, is not seen.
Again. | have met no one unless
really and truly scientific. who is aware
that there are over 5000 varieties of
bats. Some are fruit-eating, others
blood-sucking, and the rest insect-eat-
ing: there is so wide variety that, to
compare them to the mammalia, they
are as widely different as are tigers
and sheep, proving that they date back
to at least a million years-in fact,
they are one of the oldest forms of am
imal life on the planet that still con
tinues. Other forms have become ex-
tinct, or SO modified that only their
dentition, skeleton, etc, enables us to
trace them. The largest number of
varieties feed upon night-flying insects
Of the many varieties, there are two,
the small brown bat of the tropics. and
the small black bat of the temperate
zone, that are the most useful to man
and the greatest enemies to the insects
that prey upon cultivated crops. Both
of these are identical in dentition and
habits, except that the black bat hiber-
mates in winter and is found as faI
north as the Arctic Circle, while the
brown bat is not found north Of the
frost line, because it does not hibcr-
nate Both of,thcm prefer mosquitoes
to any other food, and, where they can
find roostang places in the daytime,
they will exte-minate the mosquitoes in
that locality. When their favorite
food becomes scarce, they will prey up
en- any night-fly;ng moth or soft-bod-
led insect, and even prey upon beetles,
even attacking coleeptrous beetles in
to the softer forms of in
sect life.
The sugar cane borer that also al
tacks corn and sorghum, comes from
a moth that the brown bat in the trop-
les preys upon, and TIE black bat preys
upon above the frost line. On the Te-
sichoacan River in Vera Cruz, Mexico,
which is tributary of the Papoloapan,
they have malaria badly, and when
there is yellow fever it always comes
up this river; but over in the State of
Oaxaca. on this same river, with all
the conditions to breed mosquitoes,
there are no mosquitoes, no malaria,
and yellow fever never comes there.
But the Sugar Cane Borer that has
made the cultivation Of cane unprofit-
able on the river in Vera Cruz does not
exist on the same silver in Oaxaca. In
searching for the cause, | found in the
limestone foothills on both sides of
the river, caves we'll stocked with the
little brown bats. They had externin-
ated the mosquitoes and the cane Dor
er as well. Like the black bat, it is
small, or about the size of body of
mouse. If bat roosts were built in mo-
squito infested districts and stocked
with the little black bats, they would
exterminate first the mosquitoes and
then the borers. San Antonio, Texas
has municipally-owned bat roost;
but what variety of the many varieties
it is stocked with | cannot say.
| have been dumbfounded at the stu
pid ignorance of some whose profession
and employment should lead them to
know. New Jersey has a state COM
mission for the determination Of mo-
squitoes, and it draws large sums as
salaries and for the work Of, drainage
and oil-scattering, Out of the state
treasury. | appeared twice before this
commission in Newark, N. J. and tried
to tell them Of the little black bat, but
could not reach their minds at all. With
all could say, and with the report
of the Smithsonian Institute in my
hands, they continued to repeat their
ideas which were practically that all
bats were bats only some were larger
than others. That there are varieties
among bats | could not beat into their
heads, and when | appeared before
them the second time with scientific
proof and accepted authorities, they
had me ridiculed in the Neward, N j.
daily press. Whether it was the fear
that the bats might end their salaries,
or whether it was Grass ignorance and
Chinese stupidity | cannot say. but il