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skidmore101 t1_iy8kt4k wrote

Reply to comment by TranquilSeaOtter in US bat species devastated by fungus now listed as endangered by zsreport

Bats eat mosquitoes. That enough to make them the MVP of the ecosystem in my book.

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YamburglarHelper t1_iy8lbza wrote

Well and their poop is hella laden with nitrates, and they're pretty indiscriminate about where they poop

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HealthyInPublic t1_iy9b7a4 wrote

> and they’re pretty indiscriminate about where they poop

Like on my windshield so it rolls down to my windshield wipers and I don’t notice until I turn on the wipers and it smears guano on my windshield

Edit to add bc my comment seemed needlessly aggressive: it’s a small price I’m willing to pay because I love those little mammals so much.

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NOLAgambit t1_iyapve3 wrote

Fun fact! The difference between guano and other things line rat poop is that guano is basically dry and then it becomes powdery after a couple hours, so even if you have bats living in a nearby area, it’s not much to deal with.

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professorDissociate t1_iybmjne wrote

Like that white dog poop?

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NOLAgambit t1_iybn3b0 wrote

Guano is black, but yeah bird poop (and I guess technically sometimes dog poop) is white. If you’re getting dog poop under your windshields, I gotta ask where you park your car?

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JohnGillnitz t1_iy9vcu7 wrote

Nitrogen was a limiting factor in human civilization since it started. You can only feed so many people on the same soil even with farm animal poop. Guano was an way around that limiting factor. It was a valuable natural resource like oil or rare earth metals are today. Civilizations like the Incas had it and thrived. Those that didn't couldn't stay in one place for too long. It was set to be the cause of the first world war, but the Haber-Bosch process was invented in 1906. That allowed energy from oil to grow crops in depleted soil. It prevented war, but is also the single greatest contributor to climate disaster since agriculture itself.

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Ixneigh t1_iycun5k wrote

What about human guano?

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JohnGillnitz t1_iycyow2 wrote

Humanure (really what it is called) is about the same as pig shit. The big difference being it is usually full of human specific pathogens, so more care has to be taken to dry it out before putting it where food grows. You don't want Bob out there just taking a dump in the carrot patch.

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angroro t1_iy9rezs wrote

Good news for my neighbors! We live on the water and there is a large colony in the walls of my home. Their health gets checked pretty regularly and they're a pretty large breeding group.

I was given the "it's a really bad idea to relocate this group" by the bat conservationists and I decided they make good tenants.

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Lou_C_Fer t1_iyaydy2 wrote

The same reason I leave spiders and house centipedes alone... well, not mosquitoes specifically. You want the predator bugs around to kill the other bugs.

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