Getting rid of skeeters by using bats....

[PAChickenChick]

Well...thank you all for responding....

I'm thinking that I'll need to do some more thinking

I'm already pushing it with my neighbors by getting the chickens...so I don't think hanging up bat houses is going to help them warm up to me any better...lol

I guess I'll just have to think of some other ways to control the little bloodsuckers. I swear I'm like a walking magnet for them....

 

[PAChickenChick]

hahahaha....
just re-read my post and the "little bloodsuckers" are the skeeters...not the neighbors...although it's a close call...

 

[WikkitGateFarm]

Bats are great--they're fun to watch fly around in the evenings.

Problem is, they really don't do much about mosquitoes.

Diet studies have shown that mosquitoes are only around 2% of the bats' food. They much prefer bigger insects, which works for me, because we have huge beetle hatches around here.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Department of State Health Services (in charge of vector control) each say that it is a myth that bats and purple martins eat mosquitoes.

In fact, it is most likely a myth that dragonflies eat mosquitoes, as well.

Insectivorous bats primarily eat larger night-flying insects such as moths and June bugs. Purple martins, being diurnal, eat larger day-flying insects such as cicadas, beetles, and butterflies. I have seen dragonflies eat butterflies and housefly-sized bugs. Diurnal creatures would not normally be considered to be a predator of mosquitoes, who are typically active after a dirunal critter was already in bed, or before they got up.

As an aside, bug zappers do not get many mosquitoes, either; in fact, they attract and many more beneficial insects than they do insects which are considered to be pests (with the possible exception of the tobacco hornworm moth).

In all my amateur entomological research, I have yet to find documented evidence of a major predator of adult mosquitoes.

For mosquito larvae, Gambusia (a guppy-like fish) are the perfect predator.