By Marcia Bonta E VERY AUGUST, it seems there are more mosquitoes. Many people blamed heavy rain last spring and summer for the massive numbers of mosquitoes and black flies we endured. It was almost as if we were living in Maine. The rains kept our vernal ponds on Sapsucker Ridge filled, providing breeding places for mosquitoes once the wood-frog tadpoles departed into the woods in late May and early June. Others I talked with agreed, even the smallest vernal ponds didn't dry up in late spring as usual. While I suspected our record-breaking wet year was partially responsible for the large mosquito population, I didn't think it was the whole story. White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease brought accidentally to a New York cave in 2007 by Europeans, has killed many of our little brown bats over the past decade. Previously, we could sit outside on our veranda at dusk and watch as bats flew overhead, Going Going Native wildlife and plant species in peril AUGUST 2019 o n e 61