by Virginia Calder

 

On a warm summer night, from towns east to west,

The mosquitoes will bite without stopping to rest.

But at twilight the bats are out ready to eat

Those annoying mosquitoes before they retreat.

Echolocation is a bats way

Of sending out echoes that bounce off its prey.

When sound waves return to its ears a bat knows

Where a flying bug is and can track where it goes.

As they zoom through the night with eyes so keen,

They swoop to the ground to eat bugs they've seen.

One little brown bat will often devour

Hordes of mosquitoes in just an hour.

There's never a danger when bats are in flight.

It's bugs, not people they attack in the night.

The farmer is pleased because bats are hi pride,

They prove much better than a pesticide.