eyecave wrote:
...consider the facts...spores are tough, if they can survive outer space...they can survive in the mud on your boots for a very long time...........millions and millions of them are floating in the cave and lying on the ground and walls.........they cannnot be avoided by even the most careful cavers going into a cave with wns among its bats...........
This in itself, is where I base 100% of my facts. Yes, cavers move, and have moved spores since before and after WNS has been identified. I have spent more than thirty years understanding spores relation to movements around the world. Spores must have a response allowing them to open. Some require heat (fire) some humidity, water, and many require a host (in this case a susceptible bat). Only WNS infected bats (according to the known WNS distribution sites) continue to increase the spread. Why? because either the bats carry a host that the spores want or need to open, or the bats carry an infection that only spreads bat to bat, that again the spores need to open and grow. My theory (under investigation) is that bacteria that keeps the skin of bats healthy by reducing the numbers of unhealthy bacteria and fungus, is declining in numbers and therefore allowing the susceptibility of the fungus to grow. This could lead us to some of the original discussions of weather pesticides and or practices of agriculture may have lead to this condition? The spreading of aerosols from planes and farm equipment would directly affect bats as it does the insects that bats eat. Now would this practice ever come under investigation for the reality of its uncertainty? Can you imagine the monetary losses from both the chemical mfg's and legal battles? I doubt it, because cavers spread WNS? Why look anywhere else?