[ RadSafe ] bats and Bayer

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

I question whether bees are "one of the man food sources" of bats, as
bats are nocturnal and bees are diurnal.  Additionally, many species of
bats are suffering from white nose syndrome, including ones that
specialize in eating very different insects.  Last I heard, there was
good evidence that white nose is caused by a fungus, quite possibly
spread by humans visiting multiple caves without disinfecting their
gear.  I am not at all saying that there aren't external factors that
make bats more susceptible, and I am not even saying the insecticide in
question isn't one of them.  I do, however doubt the pathway (and that
is without even pointing out that the pattern of colony collapse is more
in keeping with parasite or disease transmission from moving hives
around than from a particular insecticide, though irresponsible use of
insecticide can't help).  

All of that as it may be, when bats are found dead under wind turbines,
it is really, really hard to blame it on insecticide.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of James Salsman
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 7:01 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] bats and Bayer

Thanks to whomever sent me the information about Bayer insecticides
and bats.  Imidacloprid is implicated in bees' colony collapse
disorder, and bees are one of the main food sources for bats (yuck!)
Last month, Bayer withdrew some of their pesticides which are toxic to
humans -- http://www.cbgnetwork.org/4041.html -- but the imidacloprid
is still being sold.

For those of you lost in message volume, this is pertinent because
wind is currently being installed 2x last year's rate, is selling for
5-6 cents/kWh, which is two cents less than the next least expensive
form of electricity, coal, and the surplus of wind power at night has
the potential to become a substantial source of methane for power
storage and synthetic transportation fuel.  But if wind is
fundamentally incompatible with bats, then we'd have to use something
else to protect the troposphere from infrared radiation, because bats
are important.
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