'Green' solution to a biting problem
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Sitting on a porch or deck in the evening, or standing next to one of our community ponds fishing for a bluegill are some popular ways to enjoy the summer months. That is until the mosquitoes start to make their annoying buzzing noises around your ears, and worse, bite you on the leg or arm.
There are different ways to handle the mosquitoes, like spraying smelly bug spray around or perhaps one of those mosquito traps that uses propane to attract them into a chamber. These ways are not environmentally friendly. The "green" solution is attracting bats to the places where mosquitoes live and breed.
Recently Boy Scout troop 1154 completed an Eagle Project that I led to attract bats to the local streams. Eight medium-sized bat houses were built by the Boy Scouts and then hung in trees scattered throughout Ashburn Farm. Each bat house will create a habitat for several families of bats to colonize. Each bat eats between 800 and 1,000 insects every night. I got the idea for this project after reading about other communities hanging bat houses and the benefits they received.
Bats are a "green" way to control pests in Ashburn Farm, as well as reduce the risk of West Nile Virus that pops up randomly in Virginia every summer. I hope you will enjoy sitting on your deck or porch without worrying about mosquito bites, as the bats do their job every night.
Reed Imhoff
Boy Scout Troop 1154
Ashburn
Congratulations on a wonderfull project. Like to see more of them in the county!
Posted by DandeWithTheWolf
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