Next time someone declares you have bats in your belfry just say "Thank you, I hope so." You may not have a bell tower, but promoting bats in your garden area is an easy way to control flying insects particularly mosquitoes.

A single big brown bat can eat 3,000 to 7,000 insects in one night including mosquitoes, corn borer and cutworm moths. Thousands more mosquitoes are killed by bats than purple martins or bug zappers. Bug zappers are virtually worthless in killing insect pests.

Vampire stories haven't helped the bat's public relations effort. Many people have an unnecessary fear of bats. Numerous myths are prevalent.

Myth #1 Bats fly into people's hair. Bats are not blind and they have a very sophisticated sonar system that helps them grab insects in flight at night and helps them to avoid objects in complete darkness. Bats may fly near people simply because that is where the mosquitoes are. Bats are passive animals. The few that might contract rabies do not attack people. Rabid bats do not show the aggressive nature exhibited by some other rabid animals. My personal theory is that a bat may have ended up in a woman's hair once way back when ladies wore huge beehive hairdos. It was probably more difficult for the bats to detect the hair. A chance happening is enough to start a myth.

Myth #2 Bats are filthy and may carry diseases to humans. Bats are mammals and spend a great deal of time cleaning their fur. They have no more incidence of rabies than some other mammals. Bats have few parasites which very rarely infect humans. However, bats are wild animals. A person should never handle a bat especially if it is found on the ground during the day. The only health concern is from the bat droppings which in some people can cause flu-like symptoms.

Big brown bats and little brown bats are found throughout Illinois. Usually winters are spent in caves and the summer spent in hollow trees and sometimes attics. If you find you have an unwelcome guest in the attic, plugging the opening in the fall is the best solution. To find the opening watch where the bats emerge at sunset. Do not plug the opening in summer when young bats may be left in the attic where they would die. Waiting until November to bat proof will insure the bats have left for the season.

Bat nest boxes can be built or purchased to encourage bats into your yard and out of your attic. Bat houses should be fastened to a tree trunk or the side of a building about 12 to 15 feet above the ground. The east side of the house or tree is best and also locate the house out of the wind. Bats prefer areas near streams, lakes and ponds where insect populations tend to be high. Bat house plans are available at the Extension office. Start a Halloween tradition with the kids and build a bat house. Show the kids how bats look like upside down Chihuahuas.

As the winds of winter whip over the wheels of Winnebagos headed south, every winged wily creature is looking for a warm spot to wile away the winter. Elm leaf beetles and boxelder bugs are some of the common stowaways. Over the past couple of years a different critter has found our homes particularly appealing.

As fall approaches the Asian multicolored lady beetle finds its way inside our homes. They enter through cracks and crevices usually around windows or they may fly through doors as people go in and out. Other types of lady bugs may have been brought indoors in houseplants that have spent the summer outdoors. Particularly on warm sunny days insects may be seen crawling or flying around windows.

The Asian lady beetles are one fourth inch long and are the VW bug dome shape. They usually have orange wingcovers with 19 black spots. No need to count the spots. Their multicolored name comes from the variety of color possibilities ranging from tan to red and the spots may be very small to absent to large and obvious.

In their native areas in Japan the lady bugs spend the winter in cracks and crevices of cliffs. Cliffs are tough to find in central Illinois so what is the next best upright thing around – our homes of course. They enter buildings through cracks and crevices. In the spring, they will return to the outside to lay eggs.

Lady bugs are actually good bugs. Repeat this over and over to yourself as you are scooping them up from your window sills. Both the young larva and the adults feed on a wide range of soft bodied and slow moving insects such as aphids and young caterpillars. According to Phil Nixon, U of I entomologist, they also feed heavily on soft scale insects which is why they were imported into this county from Japan.

The good news is elm leaf beetles, boxelder bugs and lady bugs don't reproduce or feed while they are indoors, but are just a nuisance with their presence. Controlling these insects indoors consists of vacuuming or your best scoop and toss outside method. I prefer envelopes.

According to Phil Nixon, insecticide sprays are likely to have little effect on hard shelled insects that are not feeding. Caulking cracks and crevices around windows, along the foundation and around doors will help reduce the numbers that can make their way indoors.

If you love gardening, would like to learn more about it and also want to help others learn more about gardening, then the Master Gardener program is for you.

The Master Gardener program is an international association of volunteers who are a vital link in getting research based information to the public through the University Extension offices. The 50 hours of daytime training includes a variety of topics including trees, lawns, flowers, vegetables, fruits, insects and diseases.

In return for the training each Master Gardener agrees to give back at least 70 hours of volunteer time. Most of the time is spent in the Extension office helping other gardeners with their questions. Volunteering may also include working on special projects in the county such as the Master Gardener Idea Garden at the U of I Arboretum, school gardening programs, community gardens, displays and workshops.

The Master Gardener program is a great way to learn more about gardening and meet other people who enjoy gardening as much as you.

Call Champaign County Extension office for an application or for more information. Training sessions start in January, 1999.

Now is the time to:

• The average frost date is October 15. Dig sweet potatoes before a hard freeze.

• Harvest winter squash and pumpkins before frost. For best storage quality leave an inch or two of stem.

• Gourds should be harvested when their shells become hard or when their color changes from green to brown.

• Continue mowing lawns until growth stops.

• Plant spring flowering bulbs. Be sure to include some of the early flowering varieties such as winter aconite, Grecian wind flower, snowdrops and snow crocus.

• Spring bulbs for forcing can be potted up now and stored in a cool frost free place until it is time to bring indoors usually 12 to 15 weeks. An extra refrigerator works well in coaxing bulbs to bloom early.

• Keep poinsettias in complete darkness from 5 pm to 8 am every night for approximately eight weeks until flower bracts show color. Poinsettias must get light during the day.

• Sign up for the 1999 Master Gardener program.