West Virginia’s Bat Species Declining

An animal important for crop protection, some bat species in West Virginia are endangered including the northern long-eared bat, and the Virginia big-eared bat. David Mychewski with the National Wildlife Federation says bats are important to farms, gobbling up mosquitoes and damaging pests such as moths and beetles…

“It’s estimated that the insect control that bats provide us agriculturally is worth about $3.7 billion dollars every year.”

A health threat facing bats is a fungal disease that has drastically cut population…

“It affects bats while they’re hibernating, and it basically has a massive mortality rate. Something, you know, on the order of 90% of bats infected with this die.”