Mosquito mishap
In the dead heat of a South Floridian summer, the mosquito population can seem insufferable; the buzzing blood-hungry insects breed profusely in the still, shallow waters that cover the Everglades and surround the Keys. At nearly every outdoor establishment, from restaurants to campgrounds, the smell of bug spray and burning citronella candles permeates the air. Yet, as much of an annoyance as today’s mosquitoes are, their impact was immeasurably worse before the mass use of pesticides.
It is said that in pre-pesticide times, mosquitoes would sometimes form in clouds so thick that residents of the Keys would breathe them in by the mouthful. It was once even reported that over 350,000 mosquitoes were caught overnight in just one trap.
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Address 4 Bat Tower Road, Monroe County, FL 33042 | Tip While you’re in Sugarloaf Key, why not go skydiving? Head to Skydive Key West (5 Bat Tower Rd) and parachute thousands of feet down to the sandy floor below.
During the land boom of the 1920s, real-estate developer R. C. Perky bought property in the Keys, including acreage on Sugarloaf Key. Perky was well aware of the mosquito problem that bedeviled the Keys, and was intent on combatting it. After reading a book called Bats, Mosquitoes, and Dollars, Perky hired Fred Johnson, a sponge cultivator from Key West, to build him a tower to house bats – nature’s mosquito predators. The tower was based on the design described in the book, authored by a Texan named Dr. Charles Campbell – the inventor of the bat-roost. Perky followed the guidelines outlined by Dr. Campbell and imported hundreds of bats from Cuba and Texas to nest in the 30-foot tall wood-shingled tower. Perky even brought in sex-scented bat droppings, at significant expense, to attract the web-winged creatures to the tower. Unfortunately for Perky, the bats flew out the first night and never returned.
Today, on the dilapidated, unmarked Bat Tower Road, the tower still stands on Sugarloaf Key as it did in 1929. Its only resident is an osprey, whose nest is perched atop what is now the Florida Keys’ most formidable birdhouse.
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