Skip the insecticide this summer. Fight mosquitos with bat homes

Summer draws nigh, which means it’s mosquito season. You have your usual arsenal of tiki torches, insect repellent oil, electric zapping lamps, and insecticide needed to fight them and the nasty viruses they carry. But there’s a more nature-friendly way to destroy these buzzing annoyances: bats, which can eat up to a 1,000 mosquito-size insects per hour. That’s what BatBnB wants you to know. The company first took shape in 2016, with some sketches and brainstorming by an Google employee and an architectural designer. Their mission: to turn bats into a pest-control weapon for homeowners by creating nice homes for them that look great in people’s yards. Both founders had experiences with bats when they were kids. One, Christopher Rannefors, grew up building bat houses with his dad in Massachusetts. The other, Harrison Broadhurst, had a mom who was a grade-school biology teacher and used to incorporate bats into her classes. But even when you explain to people that bats are amazingly effective pest controllers, they may not embrace the creatures on their property. Most people are just scared of bats—you can thank Dracula for that but also just the fact many think of them as rats with wings. […]

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