September 2, 2016 (Notre Dame, IN) — WSBT came by on Thursday to talk with Dr. Laura Kloepper about her research on bats and bats as a solution to this regional mosquito problem. Kloepper and biology professor Ben Rudenga have been taking their first-year students into the forest behind campus for an ecology lab. There has been an influx of mosquitos due to recent flooding and the students have been wearing headnets and loads of bug spray to protect themselves during fieldwork.
Kloepper shared that Indiana bat populations are decreasing and a fungus, known as white nose syndrome, has been wiping out bat populations across the United States.