Page 16 - Rotary Matters - November

Bat boxes for vineyards

80 hours of volunteering was recently put by 13 club members and volunteers from the RC Seaford
building bat boxes as its environmental project as part of its contribution to the 7 Areas of Focus of the
Rotary Foundation.

100 bat boxes were built for Eco Vineyards in collaboration with Wine Australia. Recently Wine Australia
announced a new three year $2.2million regional based program that supports wine grape growers to
increase the functional biodiversity in vineyards around Australia. The bat box program is a component of
this activity which are being placed in vineyards.

With the assistance of Rotarian Kevin Brown and his workshop which cut and prepared the timber for
the construction, the team from the RC Seaford swung into action and over 4 hours aligned, screwed and
painted 100 bat boxes.
This is the second request received by the Club under the banner of Eco Vineyards.

The micro bat is a tiny creature generally living in
colonies of half a dozen.
They are excellent insect controllers, consuming
at least 50% of their body weight in insects every
night. This activity hopefully will reduce the
quantity of chemical spraying.

Micro Bats produce high frequency sound pulses
through the nose or mouth. A flap of skin in front
of the ear directs the returning echoes to make a
‘sound picture’. When flying microbats emit about 10 pulses per second. When an insect is detected,
the pulses go up to over 100 per second.

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