INSECt CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1927, Page 20

INSECt CONTROL

VALUABLE SERVICE BY BATS.

lfeats were recently 'revcaicd, according' to the San Francisco "Tribune," not as hideous things that form themes for anurder mysteries, or thafc cling in wonleh's hair and have to be cut out, but las thb greatest friends th* farmer has in the animal kingdom. This new view" of tho weird nocturnal creature is takeni b;r .Dr.. Joseph- Grinnell, director of-the University of California Museum'of vertebrate zoology, who calls bats '"•'the night'shift, of insect control. ". \ While Ithe rest of the world is asleep,. the bats fly out over the crops, eating Wdlin moth's and other insects which 'ffiestroy the'farmer's profits, Dr. Grinnell declares.

Everf- one of the 33 different varieties of "hats in California is insectivorous Dr. i Grinnell has found and the little anhnals earn their right to live in their nijghtly starch for foodi Hopes raised s^Wne time ago. that, bats might prove useful as destroyers of mosquitoes werte proved, groundless by . Dr. Grinnell, .;who found that a mouthful of "anopholtui" does ' not constitute the bat's idea, of a square meal. People -\faho have been 'ainnoj'cd with colonies ol? bats "roosting", in their barns or atitics are advised by Dr. Grin? noil not to kill tho unwelcome tenants, but to boar\d up all entrances while the bats aae ocg &* s?Sfe*i —