BENEFITS OF BATS: Wildlife that gives by taking ... .we'll 
explain on Passport to Texas.
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Millions of Mexican Free-tailed bats have begun their 
springtime migration to Texas where they will bear their 
young and eat tons of pesky insects.

The Mexican free-tailed bat in particular is really valuable for 
agricultural purposes. :05

Meg Goodman is Texas Parks and Wildlife's bat biologist. 

Current research has shown that these bats can save farmers up 
to two sprays of pesticides per year because of all the insect 
pests that they're eating. They're eating things like the corn 
earworm moth and the cotton boll worm moth, among other 
crop pest species. :13

In addition to eating two-thirds their weight in insects 
each evening, their nightly flights from inside caves and 
under bridges have become tourist attractions statewide.

Just their numbers and nightly emergences bring in a lot of 
tourist dollars to a lot of small communities and big 
communities like Austin. It's one of our top tourist destinations 
right here in Austin. But they do provide a lot of dollars through 
nature tourism through a lot of our smaller communities 
throughout the state. :14

The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is home to more 
than a million and a half visiting free-tailed bats. Bridges 
are favorite roosts for this flying mammal, and tomorrow 
we meet a man who builds bridges with bats in mind. 

I would say that they type of bridges we build that would 
accommodate bats, we probably build about 30 of those 
statewide every year. :07

That's our show for today ... thank you for joining us ... for 
Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.