Emily Chan
Across the United States, bat populations have been devastated due to a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS).
It is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which grows around the bats’ noses, mouths, and ears. The disease was likely introduced from Europe and has killed millions of bats.
The first sighting of WNS in bats was in 2006 when people noticed that the bats in New York’s Howe Cave had a white, fuzzy substance growing on their snouts.
Bats are heavily relied upon to protect farmers’ crops from insects. But since so many have died, farmers have turned to chemical pesticides.
Now, a new study has found that the increase in pesticide use has led to more than 1,000 human infant deaths. Clearly, bats are vital to the ecosystem, and their loss greatly impacts human health.
“Bats have gained a bad reputation as being something to fear, especially after reports of a possible linkage with the origins of COVID-19,” said Eyal Frank, a study author and an ecological economist at the University of Chicago. “But bats do add value to society in their role as natural pesticides, and this study shows that their decline can be harmful to humans.”
Frank compared the effect of mass bat die-offs in areas with the fungus to areas that were likely unaffected by the wildlife disease.
Since the disease was first detected in the U.S. in 2006, bat mortality rates from WNS have averaged above 70 percent, forcing farmers to compensate by using chemical solutions to protect crops.
When bat populations declined, pesticide use increased by about 31 percent. Meanwhile, crop sales revenue decreased by almost 29 percent.
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