Real-life batwoman helps tiny creatures

[Donna]

She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population

Bats are nothing like they are portrayed in Hollywood movies: vicious, screeching
creatures that will turn humans into vampires.

Just ask Jackie Kashmer, who has been rehabilitating sick and injured bats at her home since 2005, when she started Bat World New Jersey in Hunterdon County. As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, the 55-year-old Milford resident not only nurses bats back to heath, but also works to change the negative perceptions most people have of the tiny winged mammals.

She has even concocted a treatment that state biologists are studying as a possible cure for a devastating bat disease.

"Bats are a totally beneficial animal,'' Kashmer said. "They are tiny little creatures
that don't make any noise. They are gentle and shy, very intelligent, each with its own
personality.''

Kashmer's services have been in high demand since January, when a mysterious ailment called white nose syndrome was first found to be threatening the nine species of bats that call New Jersey home.

White nose syndrome -- a cold-loving mold called Geomyces destructans that grows on the muzzles and skin of stricken bats -- has led to what some scientists have called the "most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in recorded history.'' In just three years, the fungus has wiped out an estimated 1.5 million insect-eating bats in nine states, from New Hampshire to West Virginia. It causes bats to lose stored body fat, forcing them to venture outside their caves in winter when there are no insects for them to eat.

That's where Kashmer comes in. Bats recovered alive -- suffering from frostbite, starvation and incapacitated with dried wings crinkled like crepe paper -- are often brought to Bat World New Jersey, where the 17-year wildlife rehabilitator has devised a way to treat them.

Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.

"Tropical fish develop a fungus and tail rot if the water is too alkaline, and I read that
fungus can't grow in an acidic environment,'' she said. "Putting vinegar in the tank worked on fish and I found that after two weeks of application on bats, not only did it kill the fungus, but the skin repaired itself.''


Photos of Kashmer's rehabilitated bats caught the attention of the Mick Valent, principal zoologist with the state's Endangered and Nongame Species Program. Together, they conducted a study of 30 bats from Hibernia Mines in Rockaway Township, the state's largest-known bat hibernaculum, to see if the solution cures them of white nose.

The experiment was promising, Valent said, but it is too soon to tell if it was successful because lab results have not yet been studied.

What Valent is sure of is that white nose syndrome has decimated the bat population at Hibernia Mines. An estimated 30,000 bats normally hibernate there, but Valent said he found just 750 in March.

"When we went in there in the spring, there were thousands of dead bats on the floor,'' Valent said. "We are not sure what we will find this winter, whether the returning bats have found an immunity or if the fungus will return.''

Biologists in the fight against white nose are focused on researching its origins and measures to treat stricken bats and prevent the spread of the fungus to bats in other states, said David Blehert, a microbiologist with the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin.

"It's very challenging to manage a wildlife disease,'' Valent said. "A wild animal won't go to a doctor, won't isolate themselves in a bedroom and stay home from work. There are limited means by which to deal with it, and we have to be sure we're not harming the species, other species in the ecosystem or harming the environment.''

Kashmer, a court reporter by day, devotes countless hours to bats, feeding them mealworms and cleaning their cages. At her home, about 20 little brown bats that have recovered from white nose are isolated in a spare room, living in netted cages. Others are in a separate structure built recently to serve as an education center, and more in a giant netted outdoor cage.

Kashmer does not get paid for her work, but said the payoff is releasing bats back into the wild.

"This is my calling,'' Kashmer said. "We can't let bats die.''

[Tokira]

She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population


Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.

Most interesting...
One wonders if perhaps misting sleeping bats in caves with a dilute vinegar solution might turn out to be effective against this plague.  What a breakthrough that would be 
Carol
WV

[valhalla]

She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population


Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.

Most interesting...
One wonders if perhaps misting sleeping bats in caves with a dilute vinegar solution might turn out to be effective against this plague.  What a breakthrough that would be 
Carol
WV

I was thinking the same thing, as vinegar is a wonderful antiseptic and cleaning agent (I clean my glass stovetop with it - shiney and squeeky clean).

Donna - those mines aren't too far away from you (Greenpond Road??) might be worth an investigation.

[Donna]

She may have devised treatment for fungus afflicting population


Kashmer applies a diluted concoction of apple cider vinegar and warm water to bats' skin using a Q-tip -- a trick she learned as the owner of tropical fish.

Most interesting...
One wonders if perhaps misting sleeping bats in caves with a dilute vinegar solution might turn out to be effective against this plague.  What a breakthrough that would be 
Carol
WV

I was thinking the same thing, as vinegar is a wonderful antiseptic and cleaning agent (I clean my glass stovetop with it - shiney and squeeky clean).

Donna - those mines aren't too far away from you (Greenpond Road??) might be worth an investigation.

Very close to me...been there done it. Might be fun to have another looksie. 

[Bird Crazy]

It would be great if this would help the white nose. I bats

[valhalla]

It would be great if this would help the white nose. I bats

Me, too!  Those little guys are so useful and so misunderstood.

[Dot_Forrester]

Sure hope the vinegar solution turns out to be effective in the large-scale tests.  Bats have been forced to attempt to survive so many human activities that it breaks my heart to see them dying in such large numbers from white-nose syndrome.

Dot in PA

[Mirta]

Bats have been forced to attempt to survive so many human activities that it breaks my heart to see them dying in such large numbers from white-nose syndrome.

Dot in PA

AGREE!!
Mirta

[Dot_Forrester]

 Just got this very good news from Bat Conservation Times:

The U.S. Congress has approved $1.9 million in federal funding for research to identify the cause and seek solutions to White-nose Syndrome – the disease that is devastating bat populations throughout the northeastern United States and threatening bat species across North America.
 
The funds, included in the final version of the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, mark a dramatic increase from the initial allocation of just $500,000 for monitoring affected bat populations. The WNS-research support was added by a joint committee that resolved differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. Both houses of Congress approved it on Thursday (October 29).
 
The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

Dot in PA

[Donna]

Just got this very good news from Bat Conservation Times:

The U.S. Congress has approved $1.9 million in federal funding for research to identify the cause and seek solutions to White-nose Syndrome – the disease that is devastating bat populations throughout the northeastern United States and threatening bat species across North America.
 
The funds, included in the final version of the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, mark a dramatic increase from the initial allocation of just $500,000 for monitoring affected bat populations. The WNS-research support was added by a joint committee that resolved differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. Both houses of Congress approved it on Thursday (October 29).
 
The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

Dot in PA

SWEET!!!!!!!!   

[Bird Crazy]

cool about time the government does something worth while