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Welcome back, !
Fall has been so lovely, and as always it’s one of our favorite times of year. How has your mindful cleanup challenge helped you appreciate the season? We would love to hear about it. Hit reply and let us know - we read every email! Or stop by the EarthCare Community Facebook group and share your experience.
Part of our EarthCare practice is to take moments of reflection and appreciation, especially as we draw closer to winter. We love using this time to tend to our inner landscape, as well as the outer landscape. It’s a great time to take a moment and record observations about your experience in your Nature journal this week.
Now, for this week’s Fall CleanUp Challenge: Learn about bats + incorporate bat shelter into your landscape.
You might be asking, attracting bats on purpose? Really??
Yes! Bats are natural allies in the ecological garden. They’ve gotten a bad rap, but bats and humans can coexist very successfully in our region. Let’s explore!
Why welcome bats?
They’re natural predators of mosquitoes! One little brown bat (that’s the official common name of one species local to us 😊) eats up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour, and a nursing mother eats over 4,000 insects every night.
Many problematic insects are active (and do the most damage to plants) at night, which is prime feeding time for bats.
Most bats (especially those in our bioregion) are non-aggressive, their guano doesn’t put you at higher risk to contract disease, and they’re no more likely to carry parasites and rabies than other mammals.
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