Wild About Wild Life

If you are interested in attracting bats to your garden, here are a few tips for you to follow. We will cover the different parts of the country and perhaps some of the best ways and places to mount bat houses as well as other criteria needed for your own insect controllers.

Lighting And Water To Attract Bats

Some general ideas that work in most places are keep your patio lights and any outdoor lights you have on all night. These lights attract insects and that provides a food source for your bats. Also a birdbath with fresh water would be something good for bats as they need fresh water to drink and it keeps them up a little higher to keep them out of a predators way. Okay, now to some specific information.

The Bats Roost – Where To Place Them

Bats are always looking for new roosts and the primary thing for us to remember is patience. It may take up to two years to establish a roost. So consider were to put up an artificial roost and in what direction to face it and if the OUTSIDE Only of the bat house should be painted. The bat house should be facing to the south-southeast for at least seven hours of direct sunlight. If there is a permanent stream or pond within a quarter mile this would also be great for them and if there is a woods or forest tree line within 100 feet to hide in in case of predators also good. However not all locales support this, so alternatives will be needed. For example a birdbath with fresh water would work or a garden pool would also be agreeable to them.

Temperature – An Important Consideration

Temperature is a critical requirement for bats. In the northern and central parts of the country the bat roosts need heat and lots of it, especially in the winter. You can paint the outside of the bat house a darker color with a non-toxic latex paint and try to provide the roost with at least 6-8 hours of sunlight, preferably eight to twelve hours would be better. Make sure the edges are caulked to prevent air leaks as this will cause the heat to leak out. Most bats have a winter hibernation place to go but you may be lucky and they will stay in the roost, but remember if you disturb them in any way during hibernation they will probably die.

In the southern climes paint the outside with a lighter more reflective color to remove some of the heat from the roost. If you mount the bat houses on a pole in the south, put up two of them and face one north and one south. If the bats occupy the north one more, in extremely hot temperatures between 95-100 and above a 100 degrees you can put up a tin roof over the top of the houses and if the temperatures run between 95-100 it is highly recommended to paint the roost a medium color and a white roof and over a 100 paint a light shade and a white roof. Again temperature is critical for the summer roosts and nurseries. Remember some bats have a winter hibernation area and they will return the next season.

The Importance of Proper Mounting

Where you mount a bat house is critical and they will be occupied quicker if on a building or pole. Again they need to be high enough to be beyond the reach of most predators. Between 12-25 feet at the lowest and maybe better at around twenty feet if possible. New roosts need to be up before winter so they can be found in the spring when the bats come out to eat after hibernation. If the roost is not occupied by the second year try moving it to a different location. Remember, patience is necessary if you want to have bats around. A great natural insect controller.

* For More Information On Roosts For Your Local Bats To Help With Natural Insect Control And Pollination, Please Visit: http://www.wildlife-houses.com/product_info.php?cPath=15&products_id=331

A bee collects nectar in a mustard flower at Sitgram village, about 185 km (115 miles) south from the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri November 22, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri

BEIJING (Reuters) – Being stung by a bee would have most people rushing to hospital, expect at one Beijing clinic where patients queue up to be pricked into good health.

Bee sting therapy, which involves placing live bees on a patient’s body at certain pressure points, dates back over 3,000 years in China and was considered legal in 2007.

It is similar to acupuncture in that it uses bees stingers instead of needles and the same principles, but the bees’ toxin, which doctors say is a natural medicine, is essential, making the treatment like an injection.

Doctors at the Kang Tai Bee Clinic, a traditional Chinese medical facility in northeast Beijing, say the therapy has proved effective in curing diseases such as rheumatism and arthritis, as well as a list of other ailments.

“The bee therapy has an obvious effect on patients with bone and joint diseases,” said Wang Jing, a doctor at the clinic.

“This treatment relies mainly on the bees’ poison, which can help blood circulation, reduce inflammation and ease pain.”

The bees used for the treatment are a hybrid of species from Italy and the Gulf, and are kept on the clinic grounds. Their 0.3 mm-long stings, which contain about 0.3 mg of toxin, make them suitable for the therapy, doctors say.

For the treatment, doctors use tweezers to pick up bees from the hive, placing them one by one on the pressure point of the painful area.

The bee then instinctively stings its “enemy” and dies. The stinger is then left in the body for several hours, and patients say it helps to ease their discomfort.

The doctors, who undergo strict training, decide how long the stinger should stay in body, and how many bees should be used in the treatment. At the very most, a patient can be stung more than a hundred times. At the very least, four or five times.

The center sees an average of 30 patients daily, while more than 50 can queue up during the weekend. Doctors say that the treatment has become so popular that they are considering expanding the clinic in the next year.

Some patients even travel long distances from remote areas of China to try out the unique treatment, which at around 120 yuan ($18), is much cheaper than most conventional medical treatments.

Han Lide, a patient suffering from an inflammation in the veins caused by diabetes, has been treated at the clinic seven times and insists the results are worth the initial discomfort.

“After I am stung by the bees, the pain is gone by the afternoon. My legs feel lighter. It becomes easier to walk and my legs do not feel swollen,” he said.

Doctor say more than 90 percent of their patients have recovered or felt an improvement in their condition after receiving treatment.

Despite the pain, patients often continue the treatment for many years. Cai Shulan has used bees to treat her arthritis for five years.

“I couldn’t move my shoulders before. I needed someone to help me get dressed. It was too painful to even put on clothes. After being treated here I feel fine and I am just like a normal person,” she said.

 

MAY YOU ALL HAVE A VERY, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A SUCCESSFUL 2010 NEW YEAR!

 

THANKS FOR MAKING WILD ABOUT WILDLIFE APART OF YOUR FAVORITE SITES!     

 

 

BEST  TO YOU & YOUR FAMILIES,

~ THE BIRDHOUSE GUY ~