WNS Leads to Increased Infant Mortality
September 6, 2024
An important new study, recently published in Science and widely covered by major newspapers like The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, has
Following World War II, many farmers suddenly turned to DDT, the first modern pesticide. With great fanfare, it was hailed as a miracle discovery, protector of crops and eradicator of malaria. But such hopes were soon dashed.1, 2
A nasty surprise awaited. Our new chemical friends didn’t discriminate. They attacked all living things, including us. Furthermore, they often aided our worst enemies! Prior to the discovery of modern pesticides, harvests were steadily improving. Then they took a nose dive. Over the next 50 years, crop losses nearly doubled, and farmers were forced to use more than 10 times as many pesticides just to prevent even worse losses. In the U.S. alone, we now use a billion pounds (500,000,000 kilos) of pesticides annually, including more than 600 types.1 A bit late, we’re discovering the danger.
The good news is that it’s not too late to begin minimizing our addiction to pesticides. Numerous examples demonstrate that pesticide use could be reduced by at least 50% without reduction of crop yields or standards.3 In fact, Sweden has reduced pesticide use by 68%, without reduction of either, and has simultaneously reduced public pesticide poisonings by 77%. A similar goal has been recommended for the U.S.1
Eating organic can save your life as well as the creatures we love. Organics are tastier and healthier.
Many of our most feared insect pests are nocturnal and preyed upon by bats. These include disease-carrying mosquitoes4,5 and a wide variety of the world’s most costly moth,5 beetle,6 and plant-hopper pests.7,8 In the U.S. alone, despite greatly reduced numbers,9 bats still are estimated to save farmers more than 22 billion dollars annually.10 They help protect major crops, from corn11 and rice12 to macadamia nuts13,14 and cocoa.15
In a controlled study in Michigan, northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septenrionalis) significantly reduced the numbers of ovipositing female mosquitoes.4 Also, a single northern bat (Eptesicus nilssoni) from Sweden has been reported catching more than 1000 mosquitoes in an hour.16 A colony of 30,000 southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius) in Florida was estimated to capture approximately 15 tons of mosquitoes annually.17
Left: An Egyptian slit-faced bat (Nycteris thebaica) is one of several South African bat species that preys heavily on green stink bugs, costly pests of macadamia nut orchards. Macadamia farmers surrounded by natural, bat-friendly vegetation report few pests. Middle: One little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) can catch up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour. Right: A black woolly bat (Kerivoula furva) capturing an oriental leafworm moth in Taiwan. This is one of Australasia’s most costly crop pests. It attacks a wide variety of fruit and vegetable crops.
Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida braziliensis) from Bracken Cave, Texas consume up to 100 tons or more of insects in a single night. Free-tailed bats (Chaerephon plicatus) from Khao Chong Pran Cave in Thailand consume enough white-bellied planthoppers to save local rice growers an estimated $300,000 annually.8
Free-tailed bats also can fly thousands of feet above ground to intercept migratory pests before they can deposit their eggs. And just one can easily catch enough migrating corn earworm, tobacco budworm, or armyworm moths in a night’s feeding to prevent them from laying thousands of eggs on a wide variety of crops, especially corn and cotton.5
Unlike small birds, night-flying bats can feed over open croplands without fear of attack from birds of prey. And because free-tailed bats can use tailwinds to travel at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour,18 aggregations of migratory insects can be hunted even over large, single-crop areas avoided by other insectivorous creatures.
Caves harboring great bat colonies are being disturbed and destroyed at alarming rates and are in urgent need of protection.19 Where caves of extirpated colonies have been restored and protected huge colonies have gradually rebuilt, giving hope for the future.20
Additionally, artificial roosts are rapidly growing in popularity and success, from small backyard houses to ones now occupied by hundreds of thousands of bats.20,21 Because bats often can be attracted to artificial roosts in locations where they are most needed,12and because they are more tolerant of human-altered landscapes than most insectivorous animals,9 they provide unique opportunities for helping with pesticide reduction.
Bat houses in yards and gardens can be especially useful, because many insects listen for bat echolocation sounds, terminating courtship or fleeing areas where bats are heard.22,23 They provide measurable results that can be a first step toward gaining farmer cooperation in protecting and reestablishing hedgerows and other habitats that help restore natural biodiversity, a first step in reducing pesticide dependence.24
Claims demeaning bat benefits typically come from those who profit most from promoting sale of pesticides or fear of bats to inflate public health research budgets.25 Bats are among nature’s most valuable allies in securing a safer, healthier future for humans.
Pesticide addiction is caused by what entomologists refer to as the pesticide treadmill. Insect pests rapidly evolve resistance, gradually forcing farmers to increase both the volume and toxicity of poisons to achieve the same results. Simultaneously, because predators of pests have much smaller populations and reproduce slower, they are more effectively poisoned or starved. Remaining pests then flourish in a largely predator-free environment.1,28
Moreover, honeybees and other pollinators essential to production of one-third of world crops are also killed, as are many insects needed to help keep pest species in check (like praying mantis, ladybird beetles, and wasps).1,29 Fifty percent of pest species have become pests only because pesticides killed their traditional predators.30
As early as 1979, the United Nations Environmental Program suggested that pesticide resistance ranked as one of the top four environmental problems of the world.1
Worldwide pesticide sales amount to tens of billions of dollars annually1, supporting almost unimaginable lobbying to make products seem safe and necessary.31Nevertheless, the facts are simple. Nature’s evolutionary processes are tough to beat, and attempting to do so can be extremely costly.28
Each time a new chemical combination or genetically modified product fails, we’re lured forward with claims of new discoveries. But they’re often high risk gambles. One of industrial agriculture’s biggest GMO crops, Bt corn, appears to have quickly backfired as rootworms became resistant within a few generations.32
When biodiverse landscapes are converted to large, single-crop areas (monocultures), they become extremely vulnerable to attack from insect pests with high reproductive rates.28 Natural predators, such as lizards, spiders, and a wide variety of predacious insects, even small birds, can no longer go there. Since the 1940’s between 500 and 1000 insect and weed species have developed pesticide resistance.33 Freed from natural predation, they can become a farmer’s nightmare. Biodiversified farming offers the best hope for both farmers and consumers.
As history has repeatedly demonstrated, the short-term benefits of pesticide spraying for mosquitoes are far outweighed by long-term harm. DDT, the first miracle cure for mosquito problems, was later linked to serious human and environmental health problems.2,34
The pesticide Naled is currently sprayed (mostly from planes) on approximately 16 million acres of urban U.S. annually.35 It is an organophosphate neurotoxin that affects both insect and human nervous systems. It is not approved by the European Union.36 However, in the U.S., our CDC recommends it for mosquito control. 35
Experience refutes arguments for Naled use.37 An 11-year study in a central New York swamp documented that Naled spraying achieved short-term reduction of mosquitoes but did not detectably reduce Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Continued cases resulted in repeated spraying for 11 years, leading to a 15-fold increase in mosquito vectors!38
Bibliography
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2024 © Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation. All rights reserved.
Michael Lazari Karapetian has over twenty years of investment management experience. He has a degree in business management, is a certified NBA agent, and gained early experience as a money manager for the Bank of America where he established model portfolios for high-net-worth clients. In 2003 he founded Lazari Capital Management, Inc. and Lazari Asset Management, Inc. He is President and CIO of both and manages over a half a billion in assets. In his personal time he champions philanthropic causes. He serves on the board of Moravian College and has a strong affinity for wildlife, both funding and volunteering on behalf of endangered species.