Bats swarm home in feeding frenzy
A JAW-DROPPING video featuring hundreds of microbats flying around a house in Townsville has spotlighted the critical role they play in keeping the city’s mosquito population in check.
A small microbat can consume up to half of its body weight while foraging at night, which roughly translates to about 500 mosquitoes per hour.
Based in Kirwan since 1999, retiree Max Doolan said he’s always seen microbats around, with their numbers tending to increase after rainfall events.
Following a drenching rainfall event earlier this year, he walked to the back door
and witnessed a stunning sight in his garage and backyard at about 6am.
“It was the biggest number I’d ever seen. I wouldn’t say thousands but definitely in the hundreds,” Mr Doolan said.
“I tried to open the garage door with the remote from inside the house to let them out and I couldn’t when I realised that they were still nesting on the runners.
“So I had to put the door back down again and then go outside and scoot them off the runners and then open it to let them slowly escape.”
He said they flew around relentlessly but “they try to avoid you if you’re out there with them”.
“They’ve got little teeth,
they’re quite cute. We just hoped that they’d eventually go back to where they live and didn’t nest in our house,” he said.
“We did have a couple decide they wanted to stay and eventually I’ve moved them on, (but) I never touch them with my hands.”
Microbat co-ordinator at North Queensland Wildlife Care Linda Barrett said it was important residents didn’t try and handle the microbats.
“All they have to do is if they’re on the ground, pop a box over them, and call North Queensland Wildlife Care,” Ms Barrett said.
She encouraged residents to leave their patio fans off if they saw the bats flying around and to avoid the use of sticky fly paper, which traps the tiny mammals.
“Their (population is) increasing, because we’ve moved out into the bush with our housing,” she said.
“We’ve got about 17 different species in Townsville but the same ones tend to come into care – it’s mostly our freetail bats. I get about 150 (bats) a year, across all species,” she said.