In the fall of 2015 a total of 10 bat boxes were installed on the western side of the campus following the Tulpehocken Creek to provide a habitat for the Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus).  This small bat is the most common bat found here in Pennsylvania.  A single little brown bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and is one of the world’s longest-lived mammals for its size, with life spans of almost 40 years.  The females gather in these boxes as summer nursery colonies to raise their young while the males are solitary roosting in hollow trees, under loose bark, and behind shutters.

Since 2006 a devastating fungal infection, white nose syndrome, has killed millions of bats to date, mostly in the eastern United States.  To date no remedy has come to save the bats form the disease, but providing a safe and clean habitat for the bats to reproduce and feed helps the population rebuild one bat at a time.

Over time bats have been misunderstood and sometime feared.  Superstitions, misconceptions, their unique appearance, and nocturnal nature have created a human cultural that fears a small delicate mammal that is highly needed to sustain our natural environment.