- November 23, 2024
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Aaron Carll and Sarah Main stand in front of a greenhouse at FPC they hope to renovate to grown plants for a bat garden. Photo by Jacque Estes
Two bat houses on top of the FPC gymnasium go unnoticed by most people, but the bats help with mosquito control. Photo by Jacque Estes
Aaron Carll and Sarah Main. Photo by Jacque Estes
There was never any doubt that Aaron Carll wanted to do a Community Problem Solvers project on Zika and ways to prevent it. His first challenge was to convince the other five students in his group.
“I wanted to do this from the start,” Aaron said. “If we could make a little impact on keeping people healthier and safe from something they might not know a lot about, I thought it was something I wanted to do.”
Sarah Main admitted that at first she wasn’t keen on the topic. She didn’t even know what Zika was at the time. But then she and the others started hearing more about the disease caused by mosquitoes and agreed it would be a good project to tackle.
They named it the Pandemic Project and adopted a mission statement:
“Since vector-borne diseases cause more than 1 million deaths annually, how might we implement an environmentally safe way to deter vector-borne diseases, so that Flagler County is more prepared for pandemics like Zika virus in 2016 and beyond?”
During their research they have learned that some of the chemicals used are harmful to humans, animals and the environment, and that one area of South Carolina killed millions of bees in its war on the mosquitoes.
The area was Dorchester County, South Carolina. Millions of bees died after Naled was sprayed. The U.S. has been using Naled since 1959, and, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the chemical dissipates at a rate that it is not a hazard to people.
The group of six thought there had to be a better, and more natural, way and they found it – bats.
“What we want is to not just help with zika, but to make it sustainable and also help other pandemics that might come up in the future,” Sarah said.
The team has reached out to the Flagler County Health Department , Flagler mosquito control, and the University of Florida. They expect to have a video public service announcement ready in the near future.
“One part is awareness,” Aaron said. “Things everyday people can do to deter the mosquito.”
“They breed in containers, so people should tip and toss,” Sarah added.
The team wants to add to the existing bat houses at Flagler Palm Coast High School, and hopefully branch out to parks like Wadsworth, but first, they will put a test bat house in one of their own backyards.
“Bats are the natural way to go,” Sarah said. “It’s natural for them to eat mosquitos and we already have the bat houses on campus.”
The team plans to work with the construction teacher to build bat houses, a little smaller than the current ones mounted near the roof line of the gymnasium.
It can take a while for bats to use a new house, and the team has ideas on how to attract them – kind of a “plant it and they will come” approach.
“There are bat gardens, usually night blooming flowers, that attract bats,” Aaron said. “We talked to Ms. Davis, the agriculture teacher, about renovating one of the greenhouses not being used to grow some plants.”
The team is also working with a representative from the University of Florida, a school with a healthy bat population, about proper ways to go about attracting bats. They don’t want to solve one problem and cause another.
“We have to consider overpopulation,” Sarah said. “We are learning how to attract bats, but not too many.”
For those who are a little queasy about bats, Sarah pointed out that they are already in the area, and can be seen around the football stadium at night, but few notice them.
The team hopes to raise money for their project through grants from Home Depot, and “Let it Grow,” an agricultural grant. They have also set up a Go Fund Me account, gofundme/ThePandemicProject .
Members of the team: Aaron Carll, Jayson Dwyer, Janine Jao, Michael Pierre, Zach Verdi, and Sarah Main.
