Since 2006, North America has experienced mass mortalities in hibernating bats due to White Nose Syndrome, caused by a fungus ‘Pseudogymnoascus.’ It is likely the fungus was carried by a traveller from Europe, who inadvertently spread the fungus into the bat population. Over 6.7 million bats are estimated to have died across North America so far. The bats wake up early from hibernation due to the irritation caused by the fungus. Once they are awake they will often starve to death due to a lack of food during the winter. Bats provide critical ecological roles, including insect control, plant pollination and seed dissemination. Insect control includes consuming up to 1 million insects annually per colony of 150 bats, with the entire population contributing up to $50 billion in agricultural pest control annually! A key insect species involved in the spread of diseases is the mosquito (West Nile Virus, Zika etc), and these bats can consume as many as 350 mosquitoes per bat per night! A reduced bat population means more mosquitos to spread deadly diseases that can be fatal to humans…