Robin Moore, age 9, of Olanta, South Carolina, for his question:

Are bats good or bad?

Bats are nature's children and, of course, they do not know the meaning of good or bad. They just obey the voice of nature and do as they are told. And nature always has a plan for them, a great big complicated plan that works in with her plans for all the other animals and even the plants. Many bats enjoy a diet of bugs. As they swoop through the dusky evening they devour flying bugs and this helps to keep down the insect population. The little brown bats eat up zillions of mosquitoes. From the human point of view, they are doing a good job in eliminating these stinging pests.

Many bats live in caves and use the floors as toilets. Their waste droppings pile up in thick layers and this bat manure is a good crop fertilizer. We also can say that bats have a few bad points from our point of view. Some bats like fruit, and in the tropics they raid the orchards. Some bats live on warm blood. They suck it from the veins of sleeping horses and other animals, and even from people. Everyone agrees this is a bad habit. And many bats carry disease germs through no fault of their own. When the Board of Health warns us to keep away from infected bats, we must do so.