It’s not a secret that Mosquitoes are among the most disliked insects. While they are certainly annoying intruders at backyard cookouts, they are also vectors for disease with periodic epidemics of mosquito-borne pathogens as West Nile virus, Zika, St. Louis encephalitis virus and several others. Despite contrary belief mosquitoes do not ONLY feed on blood. Females and males both feed on nectar from flowers. It is only when a female mosquito lays eggs does she seek a blood meal for the protein.
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The Mosquito Life Cycle and Disease Transmission
Female mosquitoes are the villains here, since only females spread disease by feeding on blood and they are ideal disease vectors. Female mosquitoes emerge from an aquatic larval stage, mate and then feed on blood to support their egg production. This initial blood meal is generally their first opportunity to pick up a disease-causing pathogen. Next, they lay eggs in an appropriate aquatic habitat, then feed on blood again to develop another clutch of eggs. They repeat the blood meals and egg laying until their death after a few weeks.
Bats and Mosquitoes: Unraveling the Truth
Ok so now enter the bats. We’ll go with the short answer that “yes” bats eat mosquitoes. However, it’s really not quite so simple.
The importance of bats as helping with reduction of mosquitoes and their potential to reduce mosquito-related disease have been suggested quite often in the past. However understanding bats AS WELL as mosquitoes is the key here.
While watching bats at night you will notice that they very rarely come down past 15ft after an insect and will spend most of their time in the air above or around the tree line. It is common knowledge in our industry when treating mosquitos that you will keep your applications roughly focusing on 15ft and below for the best success.
The most common skepticism in the scientific community stems mainly from the studies of bat diets. While research shows that many bats will indeed eat mosquitoes, it also suggests that mosquitoes constitute only a small proportion of a bat’s diet in testing of guano from wild populations of bats.
While agricultural pest suppression services provided by bats have strong documented support, claims regarding mosquito suppression, or even the degree of consumption, are less substantiated. Commonly referenced studies have lead to suggestions that bats consume as many as 1,000 mosquitoes per hour. These studies, however, consisted of enclosure experiments that may not represent natural conditions, and the question of whether bats impact mosquito populations in the wild remains largely unanswered.
To sum it up bats do a lot of good for the agricultural industry and have a place in life just like everything else. While they do eat mosquitoes, I would not count on them to make your barbecues more enjoyable!
