(Posted on 10-31-2010 at ecogeneration.org)

For four years now, the white-nose syndrome--a never before seen disease--has been wiping out American bats.

Today is Halloween, so happy Halloween everybody. For those of us who are familiar with this Holiday, we all know that bats play an important symbol in Halloween. But, the real practical benefits of bat populations are that bat keep bug populations in check and protect farm crops and forests from insect pests. Due to the dwindle of bat population, pathogen-carrying insects are booming and could start to inflict public health as well.

The disease started in New York and has spread at an alarming rate, horrifying biologists, and the worst thing is, there is no definitively known cure yet to treat the bats.

The U.S. federal government has been exasperatingly slow in dealing with this crises and while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently released a response plan, it is still in draft form with no specific action lists.

The white-nose syndrome has killed more than a million bats, spreading to nine species and to two endangered bat species--the Indiana bat and the gray bat.