Sick Bats Hike Pesticide Use

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- A group of researchers says the threat posed to bats by a fatal disease isn't just a threat to the animals but to American agriculture, one they believe farmers and consumers alike scarcely appreciate. Bats save American farmers at least $3.7 billion a year in pest-control costs by eating insects that feed on crops, a benefit that could be in jeopardy as a disease that has killed more than a million bats in the Northeast spreads to the Midwest, the researchers said in a paper published in the April 1 edition of the journal Science.

Sick Bats and Pesticides - Progressive Farmer