I read on the huffpo today, that White Nose Syndrome, the opportunistic fungal infection that affects bats, has spread further West. Cases have been reported in Oklahoma as well, but thus far, it has been isolated cases. Missouri though, according to this story has been slammed.
This will be--like the decline and collapse of all pollinators [which bees are part of] A sorrowful tale that will be reminiscent of "A Kingdom for the Want of a Horseshoe Nail!"
We have so much to loose, because so many of our citizens, do not understand the importance of the little *things we are about to completely throw away.
Bats are what I call a cross over species--like Hummingbirds, they are both pollinators and insectivores. Meaning that they visit flowers that bloom at night, and eat mosquitoes, moths, and flies and gnats.
And they are very good at what they do.
Late 2011, as I was building my Colony Collapse Timeline, I found it odd, that the worst year for CCD coincided with the emergence of WNS or White Nose Syndrome.
I have been suspicious ever since.
Because NeoNicotinoids are put on corn seed, with the express desire to target certain moth larvae that destroy corn. And now it is used for much much more:
Imidacloprid is possibly the most widely used insecticide, both within the mode of action group and in the worldwide market. It is now applied against soil, seed, timber and animal pests as well as foliar treatments for crops including: cereals, cotton, grain, legumes, potatoes,[5] pome fruits, rice, turf and vegetables. It is systemic with particular efficacy against sucking insects and has a long residual activity. There is evidence that imidacloprid applications to rice plants turn off certain defensive genes and thereby increase the susceptibility of the rice plant to attacks by sucking insects.[6] Imidacloprid can be added to the water used to irrigate plants. Controlled release formulations of imidacloprid take 2-10 days to release 50% of imidacloprid in water.[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/...
It is added to water to irrigate plants. I wonder what that does to our mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes you say!? Those nasty, disease bearing bloodsucking critters that ruin your evening on the porch with the grill?
Yep, those things. But what is an annoyance to us, is a major food source for bats. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point, that bats and mosquitoes co-evolved together for a time.
Which brings me to another thought, I might research later: Hummingbirds like bats visit flowers and eat mosquitoes. I wonder if any strange issues or declines have been seen in that population as well?
According to the huffpo story:
Scientists estimate the ailment has killed at least 5.7 million bats in 16 states and Canada.
Fungal infections in healthy mammals are not the norm. Fungal infections are generally, opportunistic infections that afflict animals with suppressed immune systems. Like Bumble Bees and Honey Bees, and Nosema infections.
"White-nose syndrome in Missouri is following the deadly pattern it has exhibited elsewhere," Mollie Matteson, a bat specialist with the conservation group Center for Biological Diversity said in a release. "First the fungus shows up on a few healthy bats. A couple of years later, the disease strikes. And if the pattern continues, we can expect that in another few years, the majority of Missouri's hibernating bats will be dead."
So the fact that these infections are showing up on "Healthy" bats, leads me to believe that the bats are not genuinely healthy, but in fact are just showing no signs of a systemic viral or bacterial infection. Which causes me to think --Chemical exposure.
This happens to humans too sometimes. That's why we have MSDS sheets for chemicals, so if you get sick, the doctors know what to look for in terms of symptoms, without mistakenly diagnosing you with an unusual presentation of a disease and giving you the wrong treatment.
But back to the bats:
Ann Froschauer, lead spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's investigation into white nose syndrome, said the spread of the disease to Missouri could impact crops because bats subsist at least in part on crop pests.
"Bats are the primary predator of night-flying insects, and that includes moths and beetles ... and many of those are crop pests," she said.
Ah, yes, well here is that horse shoe nail. It goes a little something like this:
We--the super-genius-hairless-apes, create chemical treatments to kill the bugs that destroy our crops. This poisons the bugs who live for a little while--just long enough for bats to capture them and consume them.
Now does anyone want to tell me what happens when a bat consumes tonnage of poisoned insects over the course of a year? Where does all that poison go?
Why it goes into the bat silly!
This is no different than the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in predator fish in the ocean. The small critters are exposed to toxins via food or just in their environs, they become floating poisonous hors d'Oeurvres to be snapped up by slightly larger animals who are eaten by still larger animals, and so on and so forth.
You can see an example here http://www.calgoldrush.com/...
There are many environmental toxins that work this way. Pesticides are usually lipophilic, meaning that they like to collect in your fat or animal fat. And in the case of insects--they are made up of primarily protein [choline] which is fat.
It would certainly explain why the bats cannot seem to hibernate through the winter. The insects they are eating are poisoned. Since this family of chemicals inhibits the uptake of acetylcholine, this may explain why they are unable to remain in hibernation. There is probably more than one poison at work, but considering the timing, it would be a good thing to look at NeoNicotinoids as a possible straw that is breaking the bat's back as well.
How It Works
Imidacloprid fits into the receptors meant to receive acetylcholine, which carries nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another. By blocking these acetylcholine receptors an excess of acetylcholine accumulates causing paralysis and eventual death.
Acute Health Effects
Effects of exposure to imidacloprid include apathy, difficulty breathing, loss of the ability to move, staggering, trembling and spasms. Studies on rats indicate that the thyroid is particularly sensitive to exposure of imidacloprid causing thyroid lesions.[1]
http://www.sierraclub.ca/...
Trembling? Spasms? So what happens when bats get lesions on their thyroids? Biologically, how different are bats to rats in terms of chronic poisoning by this chemical?
If you are trembling and spazzing out, do you think it would be harder or easier to go into hibernation? Do you think you would use more or less calories in the act of uncontrollable trembling and spasms?
The peer review studies on bees show that NeoNics are being found in the dead and dying bees, who act drunk and uncoordinated.
My question is: Why would other insects be any different? Why wouldn't they also carry these chemicals in their bodies and also be drunk and uncoordinated. And if I follow that thought through--wouldn't that make these drunk, uncoordinated, poisoned insects easy prey for bats?
In a healthy biome, predators clean out the weak and dying and defective animals.
But this is no longer a place for healthy biomes.
Froschauer said a recent study estimated bats provide about $22 billion a year in "ecological services" in part because of all the pests they consume.
"They eat tons of insects," she said. "It's sort of exponential in terms of what the loss of the species can bring."
The Missouri Department of Conservation estimated Missouri's gray bats alone eat about 540 tons of insects each year.
If we loose our insect predators and our pollinators, we will have no choice but to live on GMOs and to dump exponentially more poison into the atmosphere to keep the bugs at bay like mosquitoes and flying cock roaches.
Well, someone will be getting rich.
The rest of us, will be paying more for food that is poisoned, and living with outbreaks of Dengue and West Nile Virus.
You can visit the United States Geological Survey to view a map showing WNS cases by state
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/...
1:45 PM PT: Hummingbirds are Disappearing Worldwide
http://www.hummingbirdlore.com/...
"A recent study and population census, led by Ornithologist Dr. Leonard Trayner and other researchers from Scranton University found the population numbers for all North and South American species of hummingbirds have reached critical levels.In some areas the birds have disappeared completely. In others, populations have been reduced by as much as 90%....These were areas that had up until two years ago very healthy populations of hummingbirds. At this rate hummingbirds will be extinct within 3 years,” he said."
And this story is from 2011. So it's been a year thereabouts.
Summer Populations of Hummingbirds in Colo are in decline
http://www.suite101.com/...
I will be doing more research on this and cross referencing it to other material to see if anything pops up.