Charles Angelich wrote
 
-----------Big Bugs
 
> Insects with short life cycles are difficult to
> control. The other things that eat mosquitos are
> as much a pestulance as the mosquito (or close).
> The English Sparrows so common in Michigan were
> brought here to rid us of the mosquitos, now how
> to get rid of the sparrows?
 
 Yep, just heard a radio bit on that. Seems
 importing those sparrows may have been based on
 bad science. Since the West Nile scare that kind
 of of solution has been proposed again. In fact,
 even the bat advocates have been out in force,
 suggesting the building of bat houses and so on,
 because bats supposedly eat something like their
 weight in mosquitos per day [I forget the exact
 numbers, but something spectacular like that]. But
 according to a local university, this is a flawed
 conclusion based on an old study where bats were
 put in a room with lots of mosquitos -- and of
 course they munched away. But in real life, while
 bats do eat mosquitos, they also eat every other
 insect, and apparently only about 5 percent of
 their diet is mosquito. And newer studies show no
 noticeable mosquito reduction.
 
 But I don't think we've had anything in North
 America like the damage wrought by the rabbits and
 toads that were brought to Australia.
 
 

--- Maximus/2 3.01