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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:46 am 
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I'd love to have some bats around to eat the mosquitos but I didn't know if North Dallas has any bats. I just put up a purple martin house but I guess it was a little too late in the season to get the yearlings.

Thanks,
Rodney


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 8:01 am 
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Location: Alvarado,TX
I've seen bats in various parts of the metroplex. I've heard that if there is a nearby source of water, like a pond, lake or creek, a bat house has a good chance of attracting occupants.

Good Luck!

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 8:07 am 
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rpoldrack-
Yes, yes, yes, 32 times. If you need more information, I suggest a new book titled Texas Bats. It's only $9.95, published by University of Texas press.
Texas Bats answers the most frequently asked questions about bats and includes interesting facts that may surprise many readers. The book is full of color photos by an award-winning nature photographer. It profiles all 32 species of bats found in Texas, including five that are endangered or threatened. Each profile includes details about habitat, biology, food preferences, a range map, and what readers need to know to identify that species. The book also offers details about bat-watching sites throughout Texas.
There are bats in every neighborhood in Dallas, particularly around white rock lake. You can buy a bat house at Wild Birds Unlimited if you want to attract them. I have two houses I made quite easily.
I'm not sure where you were going with the purple martin comment, but if you think they eat mosquitoes you're on the wrong path. They eat plenty of bugs but mosquitoes make up such a small percentage of their diet it is thought they ingest them accidentally. Up until recently, Marshall grain sold PM houses with the caption, "eats 2000 mosquitoes a day". That long standing quote was taken from flawed research done in the 1940's, but still seems to have a life of it's own. When I brought the facts to them they removed the caption.
I hatched out 82 PM babies last year. They are a joy to have around for their song and antics, but not for their mosquito consumption.
Tony M


Last edited by Tony M* on Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 9:44 am 
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Tony,

Thanks for the info. I was always told that purple martins ate tons of mosquitos. I guess it came from the same flawed research. I'm fired up about the posibillity of bats though. I just ordered the book online. How long have you had your bat houses up and how long did it take to get some bats?

Thanks again,
Rodney


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:16 am 
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Rodney-
How long is a piece of string? Impossible to say how long it will take to get bats. It took me one year to get Martins in Coppell but our house in McKinney is still vacant even tho I had Martins investigating and entering the nest boxes this spring. Go to http://www.batcon.org/ and read all about bats and attracting them. This is good organization to support. Also, there is a lady in Mineral Wells that rescues bats. She has a facility that is open to the public for tours. It's only about an hour away from Dallas and well worth the admission price. She even has mini-cams set up so you can see them at a feeding session. Kids are blown away by this place. You can also see all the different designs of houses there.
Tony


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 4:32 pm 
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Not wanting to detract from the bat topic, but I too was under the understanding that mosquitos did make up a part of the Purple Martin's diet. Tony M, I would be most interested in reading the information which debunks that theory. Who is the source?

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 9:21 pm 
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Mr. Clean-
I am a member of The Purple Martin Conservation Association. The only organization devoted exclusively to the scientific study of Purple Martins (Progne subis), their biology, and habitat requirements. Since our formation in 1986, we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on research, education, and on developing and improving products for martins.
Martins, like all swallows, are aerial insectivores. They eat only flying insects, which they catch in flight. Their diet is diverse, including dragonflies, damselflies, flies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, bees, wasps, flying ants, and ballooning spiders. Martins are not, however, prodigious consumers of mosquitoes as is so often claimed by companies that manufacture martin housing. An intensive 7-year diet study conducted at PMCA headquarters in Edinboro, PA, failed to find a single mosquito among the 500 diet samples collected from parent martins bringing beakfuls of insects to their young. The samples were collected from martins during all hours of the day, all season long, and in numerous habitats, including mosquito-infested ones. Purple Martins and freshwater mosquitoes rarely ever cross paths. Martins are daytime feeders, and feed high in the sky; mosquitoes, on the other hand, stay low in damp places during daylight hours, or only come out at night. Since Purple Martins feed only on flying insects, they are extremely vulnerable to starvation during extended periods of cool and/or rainy weather.
Now don't spread this around ( I hope no one is watching this post) but PM's actually help the mosquito population because they consume dragonflies which are veracious predators of mosquitoes. That wouldn't stop me from raising them.
Tony M


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:18 pm 
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Tony M

Thank you for the information. Are you aware of any good print sources that would provide additional information on this fascinating creature?

IMO the Purple Martin is perhaps rivaled only by the dove in its aerial acrobatic ability. They are truly a thing of beauty to watch in flight.

One comment you made however struck me as not in keeping with my own observations. Though I have certainly witnessed the PMs soaring in the heavens, I have often watched them work right off of the deck speeding along at perhaps as low as 6" off of the ground. Making pass after pass at what must be feeding passes of insects rising above the ground. We will also often have them "swarming" just above our heads seemingly oblivous to us even though if we would reach up our arms they would be within easy reach.

I am extremely jealous of my dragonflies, but I guess they will have to fend for themselves. :(

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 9:57 am 
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A couple of loose ends from the nitpicker brigade. First, I wonder if the PMCA mosquito study data accounted for the spread of Asian tigers (Aedes albopictus) since their apparent arrival in Houston circa 1985. Pennsylvania didn't seem to have them much at least as late as the mid-90s, but they've been in the south since their happy arrival. That's important and, probably, unimportant.

It might be important because the Asian tigers are active when and at places where the more common types (like Culex) usually are not. So, Asian tigers are active during the day, at least during the morning and afternoon, and they don't necessarily stay close to the ground. They like people and appear to go wherever people might be. It probably is unimportant because people and Asian tigers usually don't frequent in large numbers the altitude where purple martins usually feed, but I'd rather not rile up any militant entomologists that might be watching.

I also wonder if what Mr. Clean sees near the ground are purple martins; they can be mistaken for swifts, which can/do sweep at near ground level, but then, I didn't see them.

While waiting in line at a grocery store a few days ago, I talked to a man that was buying a can of puppy food. We got to talking and he told me that the puppy food wasn't for a dog, but was for purple martin fledglings that occasionally fell prematurely from the nest. He apparently had been aiding them for years by feeding them for the short time before they fledged fully and flew off. I might have picked a different brand of food, to avoid preservatives and pesticide residues, but he may have had his reasons.

Besides bats and dragonflies, many people don't know that hummingbirds eat mosquitoes as part of their insect-sourced protein intake.

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 3:43 pm 
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Good adds, enzyme, I don't have any information about tiger mosquitoes but given that nature is usually as efficient as possible, I would assume that PM's would go for the larger meal when they have a choice. It's not impossible given we have huge whales that exist on tiny plankton, but they were designed that way and can't eat anything else. PM's have many choices. Yes, hummers need protein and spiders and other small insects are a good source. They also use spider webs to construct their nests. If you ever see one it can be squeezed like a rubber ball and it springs back to original shape. If anyone wants to know where they can see several hundred black-chinned hummingbirds eating, nesting, etc, let me know. No, you don't have to go to Belize, it's right here in TEXAS.
I would bet half of my new sweet corn crop that Mr. Clean is seeing barn swallows. The pattern he described is exactly what I have observed over the years and what mine are doing now.
Tony M


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:05 pm 
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Tony M & Enzyme11

I will allow for the possibility of mistaken identity, but I don't think so. We do have chimney swifts in the neighborhood, but don't think that was it. I had a GREAT Earth Science teacher in the 8th grade that was a bird lover, and thus included an entire six weeks grading period to bird watching and identification. Her teaching instilled an admiration for our feathered friends that has spanned more than a few decades :shock:

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:52 am 
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Does anyone have the April 2002 issue of National Geographic? I believe it was in that issue that they reported the Mexican freetailed bat, which spends its summers in Central Texas, does not eat mosquitoes. It, too, prefers a larger meal like corn earworm moths. This was determined by DNA analysis of the bat guano.

I don't know what bats y'all have up north, but I wouldn't automatically assume your bats eat mosquitoes. If they did, wouldn't they spend a lot more time down where the mosquitoes are - like under 7 feet altitude where my arms and legs are. All the bats I see are up at least 60-100 feet high.


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 9:43 pm 
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You guys sure can make a simple question complex! I have lived in northwest Dallas for 18 years and yes, we have plenty of bats. They may not eat a lot of mosquitos but they sure put a dent in the rest of the insect population around here!


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 Post subject: Bird Lover tip
PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 9:47 pm 
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By the way, you can and I have put a fledgling that has fallen out of the nest in a safe place and the parents will fly to where it is to feed it until it is big enough to fly on its own and return to the nest. We saved a robin one year and a starling the next this way. We put them in an old critter cage so the cats & such couldn't get it and the parents came and fed the babes for weeks until they could fly on their own. Much healthier overall than dog food!


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