Unfortunately it appears that heavy traffic on our WNS discussion topic caused that particular thread to become corrupted. It might be recoverable by someone familiar with YABB bulletin board software or someone willing to figure it out. If you are willing to hack into it and see what can be recovered, email me privately.

Meanwhile, to "start over" in a sense or at least make another WNS topic available here, below is a good message that came over the wire recently:

Posted by: "Bat World NOVA" batworldnova@verizon.net   bat_world_nova
Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:27 am (PDT)


The NSS is maintaining a page with a lot of links to press about WNS.
http://www.caves.org/committee/conservation/WNS/WNS%20Info.htm
Everyone who works with bats neeeds to be up to speed on this. There's a
link to the NSS's WNS liasion's impressions of the science strategy
meeting which is pretty good, especially his synopsis of what is known
and why so little is actually known.

Despite what Rob Mies of OBC said on national TV this morning, the
fungus as a pathogen has not been ruled out, pesticides may or may not
be playing a role, and global warming is not indicated as a cause. I'm
pretty ticked that an organization that claims to be all about bat
conservation did not mention any of the agencies directly involved in
WNS research, provide resources for further inquiry, or provide accurate
information on the issue. I'm sure some of you might be tapped by your
local media to talk about WNS--lets try to be as accurate as possible. I
attended the WNS meeting and am happy to give you good info and there is
a FWS website with the latest news/state of the science available. The
website above is another fantastic resource. Whatever you do, please,
please acknowledge the incredible efforts that the WNS people are
mounting to solve the issue--there are 28 government agencies and 4 NGOs
working on the issue--OBC is not one of them.

Leslie Sturges
Bat World NOVA

Your reference suggested a relationship between Colony Collapse Disorder among the honeybees, and White Nose Syndrome among the bats.

I didn't realize that cell phone technology incorporated hexagonal cells.

Apparently so do the honeybees when constructing their honeycombs.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep98/hexagon.html

http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/7_24_99/bob2.htm

Do bats have anything hexagonal going on with them?

I was reading that bats use sonar to detect shapes, and mosquitos have 6 legs.

I am not sure about that. Here in NWPA, I have probably a few more little browns. My maternity colonies grow a little bit each year and this has been a good year...........especially considering the onset of wns.

One thing I am noticing is judging by roosting patterns in my bat houses there is a definite lack of roosts for little browns. Many barns with slate roofs have fallen down in recent years. In observing how my colonies move around to different roosts, it appears they don't have many options other than the bat houses I have mounted. While I am glad to get so many in my bat boxes, it really makes me wonder about other areas where older houses and barns are being replaced with tighter exterior construction excluding the bats without any replacement roosts being mounted.

That is actually quite good............it would be good included in an article about wns.............It does give a lot of the facts about wns.........nice job!

Karen,

Have your friend join EMF Refugee. They may be able to help her find somewhere to live with less EMF/RF.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/emfrefugee/

As far as clothes go, Goodwill has a great selection of size 9 clothes, and they have shoes/boots, too, usually.

Like your friend, I suffer from severe electrosensitivities, and I'm afraid to move because it seems as if there is nowhere to move to that is safe.

Interesting though that you noticed an interstate (I-87) lined with cell phone towers along the N/S state line path of the bat die-offs, along with Hwy 7. I'm not surprised at all. Have you compared it to antenna search to see what the concentration of cell phone towers and antennas is in these areas? I tried doing this before because I suspected the same thing, but I'm not familiar with the area or the location of these caves to know what to plug in.

www.antennasearch.com

Like you, I'm curious if the EMF/RF exposure theory is being pursued by those involved in research regarding White Nose Syndrome. Though I realize chemical pathogens and microorganisms are likely involved as well, I worry that the immune systems of these bats are compromised because of EMF/RF exposure and that researchers may need to delve beyond the chemical/microorganism theory to get to the bottom of this.

LOOK AT THIS CELL TOWER MAP of NEW YORK STATE !!!
http://www.celltowerinfo.com/picts/Cell%20Tower%20Location%20Map-%20New%20York.jpg
See how there is no WNS reported in that big Adrionack Park, and just one tower in the center of it.

And compare it overall to the WNS map!
http://www.batmanagement.com/wns/wns.html
Not a total match, but enough to say that more precise information should be collected.
The WNS on the west side of NY correlates to a big cluster of towers.
I'd like to see the Vermont map, but this site does not yet have it.
And we would need a map of where the bats are located.

To see how the cell towers follow they highways, check out the less dense Oregon towers
http://www.celltowerinfo.com/picts/Cell%20Tower%20Location%20Map-%20Oregon.jpg

This confirms what I've been thinking - SE Oregon would be a great place to set up an EMF Refugee community. And Oregon is progressive enough that it might be possible to outlaw the towers in a wide area.

Karen

Karen, I'm a member of EMF Refugee, too (ipleadlyme). I'm sure I posted a map about WNS there at some point. I've been following both Colony Collapse Disorder and White Nose Syndrome among the bats ever since I realized I had electrosensitivities myself. Both the honeybees and the bats started dying around the same time my immune system crashed beyond repair, and two of my immunoglobulins remain extremely low.

I'm especially interested in the bat situation though because my pets were dropping like flies at my last address, and I lived a half a block away from a water tower where I suspect some cell phone antennas were eventually located. I've even learned that this practice can even change the composition of drinking water, and my next-door neighbor gave birth to a son with Down Syndrome, who later developed childhood leukemia. Also, three consecutive male kittens (all age 2) became ill in that house and either died or came close to it (2 of the 3 died), and every single pet had some chronic health problem that required either a special diet or ongoing medications, like steroids or antibiotics.

I'm also interested in WNS because when I took one of the kittens above to the vet for what turned out to be an infection with demodex mites (mange) and FIP, the vet had shined a black light on his skin. What shocked the vet though was that he glowed green alright, but only where my fingers had touched his coat. The vet had me extend my hands, shined the black light on me, and then took a step back saying, "This is the first time the client has ever glowed greener than the pet!"

He brushed it off saying that maybe I had touched something on my way in, but I was sick myself and suspected some sort of toxic mold problem in that house, especially when one cat suddenly began to spray the corners of the house territorially. This happened one year prior to his diagnosis (and eventual death) of fatty liver disease, and even the vet was baffled by this, explaining that if a male cat is going to begin territorial spraying, he usually doesn't wait a full year to do it. And it definitely was territorial spraying, too - he sprayed every single corner on the first floor of the house, but only two on the second floor - the entrance to my daughter's bedroom, and my ex-husband's closet, located at the entrance to my bedroom. I wonder if the odd behavior of these bats, flying around at the entrance of the caves in broad daylight in the wintertime, is some sort of signal to other bats to beware.

I looked at those maps though that you posted on cell phone tower locations, and I agree! It looks like there is definitely some relationship between WNS and the heaviest cell phone tower concentrations. It definitely deserves follow-up. Also, this fungus may have started in an area of high cell phone tower concentration, but may eventually spread to areas of lesser concentrations, so long as the climate is cold enough, since the fungus involved is a cold-loving fungus. This may explain why White Nose has not yet hit warmer states.

I live in an area in PA with heavy concentrations, but if I drive south of here, I feel even worse. I like the map of the SE area of Orgeon.

Like your friend though, I have had to be careful to avoid all scented products and chemicals. I use baking soda and Seventh Generation Laundry Detergent, and I am limited to 100% cotton fabric now.

http://biblioteca.universia.net/html_bura/ficha/params/id/22687027.html
Bats Avoid Radar Installations: Could Electromagnetic Fields Deter Bats from Colliding with Wind Turbines?
Nicholls, Barry
Racey, Paul A.
Location: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1808427

Large numbers of bats are killed by collisions with wind turbines, and there is at present no direct method of reducing or preventing this mortality. We therefore determine whether the electromagnetic radiation associated with radar installations can elicit an aversive behavioural response in foraging bats. Four civil air traffic control (ATC) radar stations, three military ATC radars and three weather radars were selected, each surrounded by heterogeneous habitat. Three sampling points matched for habitat type and structure, dominant vegetation species, altitude and surrounding land class were located at increasing distances from each station. A portable electromagnetic field meter measured the field strength of the radar at three distances from the source: in close proximity (<200 m) with a high electromagnetic field (EMF) strength >2 volts/metre, an intermediate point within line of sight of the radar (200–400 m) and with an EMF strength <2 v/m, and a control site out of sight of the radar (>400 m) and registering an EMF of zero v/m. At each radar station bat activity was recorded three times with three independent sampling points monitored on each occasion, resulting in a total of 90 samples, 30 of which were obtained within each field strength category. At these sampling points, bat activity was recorded using an automatic bat recording station, operated from sunset to sunrise. Bat activity was significantly reduced in habitats exposed to an EMF strength of greater than 2 v/m when compared to matched sites registering EMF levels of zero. The reduction in bat activity was not significantly different at lower levels of EMF strength within 400 m of the radar. We predict that the reduction in bat activity within habitats exposed to electromagnetic radiation may be a result of thermal induction and an increased risk of hyperthermia.

Belongs to: PubMed Central (PMC3 - NLM DTD)