﻿12 BULLETIN 1395, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE 



worth-while colony, because of the slow rate of reproduction, there 

 being only one at a birth. 



In the single colony of bats successfully established there seems 

 to be a profitable yield of guano. Other attempts have failed, and 

 anyone contemplating the construction of bat roosts for commercial 

 gain should be advised that the returns may be disappointing and 

 wholly out of proportion to funds expended. 



Mosquitoes have been found abundant in and about bat caves, 

 and in the single case known where colonial bats have been artifi- 

 cially established there has been no appreciable diminution in the 

 insect life or in the local abundance of mosquitoes. The assertions 

 that bats will eradicate or even noticeably reduce the numbers of 

 mosquitoes, and with them malaria, are shown by studies of their" 

 food and general life habits to be misleading and without foundation. 



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