Beekeeping > Other Pollinators

Little brown bat

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Perry:
95% to 99% gone!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.2451359

blueblood:
Bummer...I gathered the disease is believed to be from Europe but what is actually the "bug" that is causing it?

Jen:
I love the 'little brown bats', we have those here in California. I had the awesome experience of saving one (almost) from my back step last winter. I put him/her into a box with flannel cloth and a light bulb outside the box. Then I hit the internet and found how to try and help him. It's a crap shoot tho, they are supposed to be hibernating. Anyway, I had him for four days then found a wildlife biologist who took him to a wild life sactuary for injured wild animals. They said that the only thing wrong with him is that he was starving. In upper California we have been having long cold springs. So the bats are not getting a long enough feeding season and many are not fat enough to hiberate, hence they end up on the ground to die. The wildlife facility was able to keep him alive for three more months, not sure what they fed him. But alas, he didn't make it. I was sad. The lady that fed him each day had gotten attached to him as well, after he ate he would curl his wings in tight and sleep in her warm hand under the light.

DMLinton:

It is thought to be one fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, that grows in low, cave and mine kinds of temperatures.  The fungus does not appear to kill the bats directly but rather through  irritation of the bats leading to arousal from semi-hibernation.  The higher energy consumption levels at times of low temperatures and non-existant food sources leads to starvation.

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