Sagar Vira's Eagle Project

Sagar Vira of Iselin is working on an Eagle Project that I really appreciate.

Sagar, a member of Boy Scout Troop 523 of Colonia and a student at John F. Kennedy High School, is putting up a few bat houses in the wilds of Woodbridge Township. One of them is right here in Iselin!

He's got a lot of help from the members of his troop, as you can see from these photos.  When I stopped by to visit, there must have been 30 Scouts, working together on a much harder and dirtier project than you might think.  But you know what they say - many hands make light work.

Maybe you're wondering WHY I appreciate bat houses so much?  Well, I really LIKE bats.  I know, that's weird. No, I don't want one as a pet.  I like bats where they belong, like in the woods and fields.  I certainly don't want them in MY house.  But they are a really important part of the ecosystem.  They eat bugs, and that's a great thing, as far as I'm concerned.

According to Bat Conservation International, "More than two-thirds of bat species hunt insects, and they have healthy appetites. A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour."

And with all the rain we've had, we need all the help we can get to get rid of mosquitos.  How can you object to a shy little mosquito-eating machine?  And I believe that a bat is WAY better than a pesticide.

I've been camping out in the woods at night plenty of times and seen bats flying around in the dusk.  It's different than a bird's flight because they swoop around differently.  But I've NEVER seen a bat attacking a person or flying into someone's hair. And they don't all have rabies - no more than every racoon or every skunk you see has rabies. People are scared of bats for no good reason.  I think Bats have got a bad rap because they're ugly.  I feel sorry for them.

So even though I don't want a bat in my house, I'm glad that there's a little bat house that they can live in, somewhere back in the woods of Iselin.   

And I'm glad that there's a bunch of Scouts who are learning about ecology, about taking care of our environment, and about working together.  Good luck, Sagar; I hope you make Eagle Scout!