Sports

TOM VENESKY

Here’s a prediction: We will see more mosquitoes this summer.

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Why?

Because something is killing bats. Wiping out entire populations of the insect-eating mammals, and nobody knows why or how to stop it.

Considering a single little brown bat can eat more than 2,000 mosquitoes in a night, and factoring in that bats in our area are starting to perish just like bats in New York and New England did, one of our top insect predators might be absent from the evening sky this summer.

Last week the Pennsylvania Game Commission discovered dead bats in two mine sites in Lackawanna County.

A picture accompanying a PGC press release showed biologist Greg Turner kneeling at the base of a tree, the ground in front of him littered with dead bats.

The photo was taken by Kevin Wenner, another agency biologist who accompanied Turner to two Lackawanna County sites. Wenner’s account of what he saw makes it clear that something mysterious – and catastrophic, is occurring.

Something is causing the thousands of bats to use up their winter energy reserves early.

As a result, the bats are emerging from hibernation six weeks early and flying out of the mines in search of insects. The problem is there aren’t any bugs in February, and the bats are literally starving to death in mid-air.

Wenner said bats were actually dropping out of the air and dying or clinging to trees before succumbing to starvation.

“It was very alarming to witness and upsetting to see entire hibernacula lost,” he said.

As of now, no one knows exactly what made the bats deplete their energy reserves so quickly.

But there is a hint.

Half the bats in the mines had a white fungus on their muzzles and wing membranes.

The presence of the fungus confirmed a fear that Wenner and other biologists feared – White-Nose Syndrome has established itself in Pennsylvania.

During the past two years, the disorder has killed more than 90 percent of some wintering bat colonies where it first surfaced in New York and spread through New England.

Now it is here, and it is rapidly wreaking havoc.

Wenner said he expects the two affected bat hibernacula in Lackawanna County to experience 100 percent mortality.

He also expects the fungus to spread, and spread quickly.

“Many of our mine shafts in this region are close, and we expect this syndrome to sweep through and spread very quickly,” Wenner said.

Although a cloud of mystery surrounds the bat die-off, Wenner suspects the fungus spreads from bat to bat by contact. Because bats huddle together when they hibernate, contact is unavoidable. Still, it’s unknown if the fungus is causing the bats to prematurely use up their energy reserves, or if it’s just a symptom of something else.

While the game commission awaits test results from bats submitted to the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin, White-Nose Syndrome will likely continue to be a mystery.

But it will be visible.

The game commission is asking anyone finding a dead bat to not handle it and give them a call (675-1143) so officials can pick it up for testing.

Hopefully the results will yield answers and solutions.

And hopefully the mosquitoes won’t have it so easy this summer.

Tom Venesky is The Times Leader outdoors writer. Email: tvenesky@timesleader.com