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by Mary Houle, Shelburne News Master Gardener

Scott Darling from the State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Department of Fish and Wildlife recently gave a presentation at the Pierson Library relating his research and findings about bats and white-nosed syndrome, a fatal fungal disease infecting the bat population in the Green Mountain State, as well as in other areas of the country.

Nine types of bats call Vermont home. In the nine, there are three distinctions: house bats, forest bats, and migratory bats. The small brown bat is a tiny house bat and weighs only seven grams, as much as three pennies. Then there is the big brown bat that commonly winters in attics and weighs 14 to 18 grams, the equivalent of six pennies. There are four types of forest bats. One of the four, the Indiana bat, is considered endangered by the state and federal governments. This specimen is found in large colonies in Vermont's Champlain Valley. The silver haired bat is a migratory bat and is historically one of Vermont's most common.

The best news about bats is that a population of a half million bats consume over 2.5 billion insects each night. To eat the bugs, the bats use echolocation to find their prey. Bats hibernate from November through April. Generally, the bats that die during hibernation are those that wake up and exit the cave, the barn, or the attic. Researchers are not clear the reason for the premature awakening. Are the bats hungry? Is it white nose-syndrome that causes unrest and awakens them? Winter flight is fatal to bats because they cannot generate enough warmth and there are no flying insects for food.

Bats are mammals that have only one pup per year. The normal life span of this mammal is 20 to 30 years. Eighty to 90 percent of bats are affected by white nose syndrome and death can occur in the first to the fifth year of the disease. This disease gravely threatens the bat population. What can we do? The solution is unclear at the present time, however, if you discover bats in your attic or barn do not destroy them. Call someone at the state level to remove it for study or relocation. Some bats are on the endangered species list and are either state or federally protected by law.

Has white-nose syndrome been around in the past and only recently discovered, or studied? Has the bat population suffered the same problem in the past and recovered? Bats have not been the subject of this kind of study before.

The cause of the syndrome is unknown but many theories abound: cell towers, sound waves, cellular phones, satellite television communications, and pesticides have all come into question. Additional questions await study and answers. Does the syndrome transmit to humans or cross over to other winged creatures? If a fox or rodent eats a dead bat, does it succumb to the disease as well? The crowd also queried the possibility of colony collapse in honeybees as a related issue. There are no answers yet.

Although the assembled crowd at the library did not leave with solutions, we did depart with a keener sense of the environment and an increased knowledge about bats and their good qualities.

In closing, this moment seemed similar to the final moments of an Oprah or Doctor Oz show. The burning question for the audience was this: Now that I know there is a problem, what can I do?

My answer? I just bought a bat box. I was at Gardener's Supply just two days after Darling's talk and I spied the bat box. I had to have it. I plan to install it and give a warm and cheery welcome to the first bat I hear or see when summer arrives.

As we began the evening, a bird flew into the auditorium of the library and clung to the top of the curtain on the stage during the entire presentation. At first, some of us thought it was a bat and a handy prop for the discussion. It was not, but it did command our attention for a good share of the time we were there. At our departure, the bird seemed content to stay the night in the library.

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