Bat Lady Praises Winged Pest Killer

She isn't a morning critter, which may explain why the female nestled in Patricia Winters' hand didn't look like a voracious predator of the night.

The Mexican free-tailed bat, which fit between Winters' index and ring fingers, nonetheless was billed as a formidable ally for the 50 farmers and pest controllers gathered Thursday in Santa Rosa.

"She's a little bat," said Winters, known to Bay Area schoolchildren as the Bat Lady. "But she can fly faster than any other bat in the world. And she can fly up to two miles high, and all she eats are crop pests."

This last fact mattered most to those listening at the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

The grape growers and pest workers had gathered for a presentation on the value of bats in insect management. And Winters, president of the Forestville-based California Bat Conservation Fund, provided a nonstop fountain of facts as well as three live bats for viewing.

Winters showed graphics from Doppler radar and thermal imaging to depict billions of moths moving north from Mexico into southeast Texas at a height of almost two miles. Each night the moths run into what Winters called the largest concentration of mammals on the planet, an estimated 200 million Mexican free-tailed bats living in caves outside Austin and San Antonio.

Only 2 percent of the moths ever make it past the bats, which can fly at speeds of 60 mph, Winters said. One recent study estimated that the bats prevent about $1 billion a year in U.S. crop damage.

"Unbelievable," said Joe Rochioli of Rochioli Vineyard & Winery outside Healdsburg. He said he wants to see more of the animals around the county. "They eat a lot of insects."

Winters urged farmers and pest controllers to use fewer pesticides, which have been a factor in the 80 percent drop in bat populations worldwide. Instead, she advocated installing specially designed bat houses on barns or other farm structures.

"Who else takes all the pests and turns them into fertilizer?" she asked.

State agencies are helping bring back the region's bats, she said. For example, the Yolo Causeway on Highway 80 between Davis and Sacramento now accommodates about 500,000 bats. The animals love bridges where they can make homes in the expansion joints, she said.

Hector Bedolla, vineyard manager for La Crema Winery in Windsor, said he found it fascinating to learn the quantity of pests the bats consume. Winters told the group that a lactating Big Brown female bat, a species found in Sonoma County, can eat twice its weight in insects each night.

Bedolla said he is considering installing bat houses along some riparian areas near the winery's grapevines.

"Having an insect predator that is so voracious is a real asset to any vineyard," he said.

Winters' group also promotes the value of bats to about 40,000 school children a year. Many are terrified of the animals, she said, mostly because all they know about bats comes through movies and television.

Kathy Cowan, who volunteers with Winters, said she has a standard argument for convincing women about the value of bats. She focuses on the work the animals do in pollinating tropical fruit and reseeding rain forests.

"If we didn't have bats," Cowan said, "we wouldn't have chocolate."

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com.