Local Girl Scouts thwart mosquitos in unusual fashion

Noreen Hyslop photo - Displaying one of their custom-built bat-houses just prior to it being secured on the pole for placement in the ground are three members of local Girl Scout Troop 425, Caitlin Clark, Emma Powell and Eleshia Martin. Not present for the photo was the fourth member of the team, Madalyn Link. The girls constructed two bat-houses that are now in place at Dexter City Pond and at the East Park Athletic Complex.

It's a unique idea and is the brainstorm of Emma Powell, one of the eighth grade girls in the troop.

"We needed a project to earn our Silver Award," says Emma, "and I had read about these bat-houses."

The houses or boxes, each designed to hold approximately 80 bats, are put in place where there is a high incidence of mosquito activity. Bats devour mosquitos at an alarming rate, as the girls soon learned, and so the idea seemed an ideal solution to the pesky problem that plagues Southeast Missouri during the summer months.

The four members of Troop 425 who elected to take part in the bat-house building project, Madalyn Link, Emma Powell, Elishia Martin and Caitlin Clark, went to work to secure the material needed and the plans with which to work.

"Busy B Lumber donated a good deal of the supplies," says Troop Leader Malisa Mayo, "and Gary Martin was just a tremendous help for the girls in putting the project together."

The team got in touch with Dexter's Parks and Recreation Director, Lawson Metcalf, who agreed with the girls that the project was a worthwhile one and advised them that an ideal place to set one of the bathouses would be on the east side of the city pond and the second one at the East Park Ball Complex.

The houses, according to Lawson, will attract three different species of bats common to Southeast Missouri. The Eastern Red Bat, the Evening Bat and the Silver-haired Bat are all potential residents of the specially-built boxes that are equipped with thin wooden mesh-lined shelving inside ideal from which the bats to hang. All three species are known to thrive on the mosquito population and the boxes are now in place, ready for the summer season.

So, as you sit on the bleachers at the East Park Complex on a steamy night in mid-July and you realize you're not busy swatting and you feel fewer bites than in past years, be sure to thank the girls from Scout Troop 425.