Spook-tacular Garden Critters

Helpful garden critters, such as owls, spiders, toads, snakes, and bats get a bad reputation for being “spooky” around the Halloween season.  However, the National Wildlife Federation is working to give these animals the good reputation they deserve, by highlighting their usefulness for people.    

Owls provide rodent control by eating small rodent, such as mice.  Spiders provide insect control by eating insects that land in their webs.  Toads are beneficial because they eat up to 10,000 insects over the course a summer.   Snakes, which tend to hide in cool dark places, feed on insects such as slugs, and small rodents.  Bats are useful for insect population control, and even pollination of plants.

Interested in teaching your students more about Ecology? Check out SSR's Vol 41 DVD, Ecology – Bats: Creatures of the Night. If your school would like to receive this free resource, visit http://www.ssrvideo.com/nhcmsp.html.

Source:

http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2011/10/5-spook-tacular-animals-to-welcome-to-your-garden-this-halloween/