Bat Man: Eagle Scout Project to Encourage Bat Population in Mineola

One of the requirements a Boy Scout needs to complete to attain the rank of Eagle Scout is a Leadership Service Project.

Less than 4 percent of all the boys who join Scouts become Eagle Scouts. With these four new Eagle Scouts, Troop 45 has produced 129 Eagle Scouts in their 92-year history.

With assistance from the New York State Department of Conservation, the Organization for Bat Conservation, the Village of Mineola, the Mineola Fire Department and his fellow scouts, Troop 45 Life Scout Christopher Strauss chose to help the environment through the construction of houses for bats for his project on June 1-2.

Currently, chemical pesticides that are harmful to the environment are being used to kill off mosquitoes and other flying insects. Strauss says that these chemicals can be inhaled and people can touch things that have been sprayed with them. His project aims to decrease the use of such harmful chemicals, which would lessen the possibility of people inhaling them and subsequently help to reduce the possibility of people getting infected with the West Nile Virus. He plans on doing this by encouraging the bat population, a natural predator to mosquitoes and flying insects, to grow by providing them a safe haven in which to live. 

As part of Strauss’s project, Troop 45 scouts, adult leaders and friends have constructed a total of 30 bat houses that will be installed in the parks, fields and other open areas within Mineola. Once installed, the houses will provide safe locations for these insect-eating mammals to live and supply a protected place for them to properly hibernate during the winter. Improper hibernation is one of the causes of a disease called “White Nose Syndrome” which is decimating the bat population in New York and around the country. Since first appearing in 2006, White Nose Syndrome has killed millions of bats and in some areas has completely wiped them out.

The “Little Brown Bat” (Myotis lucifugus) is the bat most commonly found in the Long Island area. This type of bat is typically found in the crevices of buildings, houses/garages and under loose bark in the trees in parks and yards. These bats can eat 600 mosquitoes in an hour and a colony of 100 little brown bats may consume hundreds of thousands of insects each summer. Bats usually feed where insects swarm such as near fields, water and around bright lights. Besides decreasing the number of insect bites to humans, bats are also helpful in reducing the number of West Nile Virus incidents.   

“By providing them a safe haven to live, the bat population will grow and continue to help us control insects and reduce the extensive use of pesticides,” Strauss wrote in a statement. “If the bat population continues to decline, the demand and use of chemical pesticides will increase, which will jeopardize the ecosystems of other animals, plants and humans.  New York City has seen the benefits of bats and for years has encouraged the growth of the bat population by installing bat houses in their parks and now Mineola has seen it too.”

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