A State investigation is underway at a bat cave near Mason, Texas, after the spraying of pesticides by the neighboring exotic game ranch wafted onto the nature preserve, threatening harm to visitors and the 1.6 million Mexican free-tailed bats that visit there each summer.
While the game ranch’s manager has acknowledged and pledged to correct what he called “a mistake,” larger implications about the pesticide’s effect on the bats remain unclear.
On Saturday, June 29, as often happens on summer weekend nights in the Texas Hill Country, a small crowd of 20 nature lovers gathered at the Eckert James River Bat Cave. Cave Steward Vicky Ritter had opened the gates around 7 p.m. for visitors, who navigated the trail to the intimate natural amphitheater that serves as a showcase and seasonal home to the bats every summer.
The maternal colony almost doubles in size as the summer progresses and makes for a unique natural spectacle. Female bats arrive pregnant from Mexico in March and typically give birth in late June. After five or six weeks of nursing, baby bats join their mothers in nightly outings to consume two-thirds their body weight in insects each evening. Mosquitoes, moths, and other bugs are on the menu. The insect-eating machines also disperse seeds and pollinate agave, from which tequila and mezcal are made.
As folks found a seat on wooden benches to hear Ritter’s educational talk and await the spectacular whirlwind emergence, a cloud of pesticide wafted over from the neighboring Star S Ranch. The 14,000-acre exotic game hunting retreat bills itself as a “true Texas safari” and shares a fence with the eight-acre preserve. The bat cave entrance sits about 200 feet from the ranch’s property line.
Coughing and gasping, pregnant women, children, and babies inhaled the insecticides as they ran for their cars.
“This is the third time this has happened,” Ritter told visitors in a harrowing account on July 21, adding that she has survived double pneumonia. “If this happens again, I will die,” she said.
Following the incident, The Nature Conservancy, which owns the preserve, took the unprecedented move to close the cave for two weeks during peak visitor season. On July 11, a notice appeared in the Mason County News stating that a neighboring landowner had treated his property with a fog pesticide while guests were gathering for the nightly bat emergence.
The bat cave reopened July 18, and a Texas Department of Agriculture investigation is underway.
Eric White, ranch manager for the Star S Ranch, attributed the incident to a “miscommunication” in a phone interview this week.
“We made a mistake in front of the whole world, and we’ve corrected it,” said White, adding that he, the ranch, and its owner William Scott of Houston, are “pro bat cave.” White said the ranch has generally abided by a policy of refraining from aerosol pesticide spraying while people are present at the cave.
The ranch routinely fogs deer and other game with insecticides during the hot summer months to protect livestock from pests like ticks, midge flies, lice, and mosquitoes, he said. The Star S Ranch supports itself selling wild game hunts like ibex, aoudad, gazelle, zebra, and white-tailed deer for up to $25,000 a piece. It also sells breeding stock of exotic game. “Hunting pays most of the bills,” White said.
The pesticide used – Permethrin, from the pyrethroid family – is considered one of the safest for human beings. According to the National Pesticide Information Center, pyrethroids are synthetic chemicals that act like natural extracts from the chrysanthemum flower. They are used in flea collars and are considered safe for use on food and feed crops, ornamental lawns, on livestock and pets, in structures and buildings – even on clothing.
Permethrin is deadly, however, to honeybees and most insects. It’s also toxic in aquatic environments. The James River borders the Star S Ranch for six miles on the eastern side of the property and the bat cave sits within a half mile of the waterway.
While Permethrin is considered safe for human beings when applied properly, its impacts on bats have not specifically been tested.
Joy O’Keefe, associate professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana State University and director of the Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation, said that bats are generally exposed to pesticides through the consumption of insects carrying pesticide residues.
“Because individual bats eat many insects each night, pesticides can accumulate in bat tissues and have lethal or sublethal effects,” O’Keefe said via email.
Several studies have demonstrated declines in bat populations attributable to the use of organochlorine pesticides like DDT – and those pesticides have been detected in bat tissues even 20-30 years after the substances were banned, O’Keefe said. “We know less about the effects of pyrethroid pesticides,” she added.
She also pointed out that pesticides tend to accumulate in fat tissue.
“This means they may be passed on to nursing pups from adults, as milk production draws on fat stores. Stored fat is also burned during migration and hibernation, so effects may occur several months after exposure.
“It’s ironic that we apply pesticides where there are millions of bats, as the bats themselves provide free pest control in the area surrounding their roost.”
She suggested farmers and ranchers consider taking steps to attract even more bat species to their lands for more sustainable control of pestilent insect populations.
Renowned bat expert Merlin Tuttle, founder of the conservation organizations Bat Conservation International and Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation, expressed similar concerns about aerosol spraying of pesticides, alluding to the “pesticide treadmill.”
The term indicates a situation in which landowners must continually ratchet up their use of pesticides as insects develop resistance with repeated applications and the resulting elimination of natural predators.
“You end up killing off the natural enemies of the pest more than the pest itself,” Tuttle said. He echoed concerns for the juvenile bats. Baby bats stay close to the cave when learning to fly, he said, thus the possibility of them consuming sullied insects would be greater closer to the Star S Ranch.
The report on the investigation by the Texas Department of Agriculture is expected by Sept. 1.
Thanks for covering this story. It is appalling that the ranch was spraying so much pesticide in the first place! “Protecting” wild animals from insect bites that they would normally get living in the wild anyhow makes little or no sense. It is certainly not an adequate justification for indiscriminately spreading aerosol pesticides over thousands of acres of land.
The ranch has a moral obligation to cease using pesticides anywhere near the bat cave, AND it ought to make a huge donation to Bat Conservation International. All the studies that we have about the benefits of bats consuming crop-damaging insects show the folly of spraying insecticides that harm the bats. It’s high time for the Texas Dept. of Agriculture to take stronger measures to protect the bats!
I totally agree!! After reading this article I’m now fearful for my two colonies of honey bees as well as the bats!!!
I’m the trustee of the Bar None Ranch that also shares over 75% of our fence line with the Star S Ranch.
Ms Maeckle – please learn what “begs the question” means and henceforth use the term correctly. thanks for the article
I was going to mention that.
Thanks for pointing that out. Headline changed. —MM
I think especially as this is the third time the game ranch has “goofed” they need a very strong financial hit in the form of a $25,000 fine to remind their little brains that you do not spray in any wind. And wildlife do not need spraying, put the animals into a corral and treat if deemed necessary by a vet. Maybe some of the sprayed visitor’s lawyers will help remind the ranch manager too?
They do not sound smart enough to run a ranch – next to preserve especially. I am surprised the Nature Conservancy is taking all of this without legal actions?
Does it? Or does it “raise” the question?
“To beg the question is to assume the truth of the conclusion of an argument in the premises in order for the conclusion to follow. One of the simplest examples is the claim, “Paranormal activity is real because I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
You are abviously missing the point here. This is not an English assignment to be graded by you. It’s an article, informing us about a local ignorant person spraying poison close to The Seveth largest Bat Nursery on our plants!
Bats are not going to eat insects on the beasts. Coming from Mexico they probably have been exposed to all kinds of pesticides. The spraying should not be done if the wind is greater than 5 mph.
Roundup the game and put them in a corral? Are you nuts?
If it has happened 3 times it is not an accident. If the ranch has 14,000 acres, they should be able to stay away from their neighbors with their spray.
As per your article, Permethrin is not safe for humans either, if you read pesticide product labels and MSDS sheets it is also highly toxic to humans more so in a form of fog rather than a spray. We are presently fighting Brazoria County Texas mosquito Department who is presently illegally applying this pesticide along with malathion and dibrom, which state in black and white not to be sprayed while honey bees are forging and flying, also States that these pesticides are not to be used unless mosquitoes test positive both in house and third party and must be documented prior to spray. As for federal departments supposedly investigating, we all know where that’s going to wind up.
Sounds like two big reasons to shut Star S ranch down or at least make them pay a massive fine. 1) They are repeat offenders in poisoning the bats and people, and 2) they mass profit from the “hunting” of exotic animals….connect the dots – they don’t care what happens to living things. Spray fogging animals with pesticides, and right near a protected bat cave? Dumb and dumber. $25,000 is not enough of a potential fine, as these folks make that on a single wild game hunt. Texas Department of Agriculture investigators, please make sure Star S ranch is at the very least fined $50-100,000 for their repeat offense (strike three). They obviously don’t care about any form of life if they are mindlessly spray fogging animals, bats, people and children (and pregnant women!) with pesticides. My neighbor poison a live bee hive with pesticide spray fogging… people who do this don’t think twice about how they are impacting the ecosystem, air quality, and the health and safety of living things.
There clearly is an unresolved liability issue here. I too am stunned the Nature Conservancy is not responding more aggressively. This fogging amounted to a chemical attack on an innocent gathering of people on adjoining property dedicated to preserving a highly unique wildlife resource. Imagine, if the tables were turned, the response of the Star S if an adjoining property owner engaged in activies that threatened their exotic stock and made their high paying customers sick or fearful to return. There would be hell to pay. I’m not convinced much will come out of Sid Miller’s Agriculture Department investigation- I’m sure he has already received the “ heads up” from the Star S owner. Please keep a close eye on this Monica and update us on the investigation results. And please Nature Conservancy- don’t just let this slide!
They need to stay true to their job at hand and stop this kind of stuff from happening !!!
If they kill my honey bees and reduce the number of bats coming here year after, that could be very costly to the whole ecosystem of our beautiful hill country along the James River.
Monika, The bat cave is apparently not opening until this issue is resolved. That is an issue, but not as important as the possible harm that the spraying is doing to the bats. I am trying to find out more information about the current status of the investigation and stopping of the spraying near the Eckert Bat Cave. Do you have any current information? Have they issued and injunction or anything? Also, the most reasonable solution would be for Star S to relocate their holding pens to a different location that won’t affect the bats or James River. Bats in the US are declining rapidly due to “white Nose” and we need to do what ever we can to protect where we can. Imagine if there were no more bats to gobble up the millions of insects each night.