Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
Golf courses and luxury housing developments seem to go hand in hand, and Mountain Dell Golf Course is the latest to jump in the game to attract some exclusive clients.
On Tuesday, officials put the finishing touches on penthouse apartments with a bird's-eye view of the 18th green. While a person can barely stick a hand in the front entrance, it is more than spacious enough for the intended residents -- bats.
Sometime this spring, when area bats emerge from hibernation, golf course officials hope the nocturnal mammals will start moving into a pair of gray stucco structures set atop a 20-foot-high steel pole. There are living accommodations for up to 6,000 bats as well as a nightly all-you-can-eat mosquito buffet.
"A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes per hour," said Allan Daly, of IPM Strategies, a natural pest management company that typically works with farmers.
Not only can bats target mosquitoes -- some of which can carry West Nile virus -- but they also can take care of insects that attack the carefully manicured turf on the golf courses, he said.
Daly said the bats are part of a comprehensive natural pest control program for the Salt Lake City-run golf course off Interstate 80 in Parleys Canyon. Several species of swallows that nest in the area help keep daytime bug populations under control.
"When the birds go to bed, the bats take over on the night shift," he said.
Florence Reynolds, water quality and treatment administrator for the city's Department of Public Utilities, said the bats should help preserve the quality of the watershed and allow the golf course to use fewer pesticides.
Daly said he hopes bats will begin to move in this spring and make the area their home for years to come. The houses, if used, will serve as a maternity colony where female bats raise their pups while male bats roost elsewhere. Potential bat species for the houses include Mexican free-tailed, big brown and little brown.
"They like the darkness inside," said Mark Ruff, the course's superintendent, as he looked at his facility's newest addition. The bat houses sit on a former fairway that has been allowed to return to a more natural state.
Summer temperatures in the insulated structures will reach more than 100 degrees -- just fine for the warmth-seeking bats.
While lower temperatures have prompted many of Utah's bats to hibernate, more than 200 researchers from across the country are descending on Salt Lake City this week for the 34th annual North American Symposium on Bat Research. The conference, which runs today through Saturday at the Little America Hotel, includes discussions about the latest science surrounding the flying mammals. (For more information, visit <http://www.nasbr.org/>.)
"Bats are not blood-sucking, rabies-infested creatures that like to fly into women's hair," Daly said.
The brown bat
A single little brown bat can chow down on up to 1,200 mosquitoes each hour.
The bat houses at Mountain Dell Golf Course will hold a maternity colony, where female bats raise their young.
A sleeping bat's heart beats one to three times a minute; a flying bat's heart races to 1,200 beats per minute.
The 34th annual North American Symposium on Bat Research hits Salt Lake City today through Saturday.
