One graduate student stood alone in a cornfield, opening and closing giant netting structures for several hours each day for the sake of research.

Josiah Maine, a graduate student from Shawnee, Kan. studying zoology, is researching how bats control pests that eat crops, specifically corn.

Maine, a member of SIU’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, created his experiment, which is the first of its kind, with help from Justin Boyles, an assistant professor of zoology.

Boyles has been researching White- Nose Syndrome, an illness that affects bats, and how decreased bat populations affect agriculture. The syndrome is a fungal disease that causes bats to starve to death during hibernation.

Boyles said there are six common species of bats in southern Illinois. The most common is the evening bat, but there are also big brown, little brown, red, northern long-eared and tri-colored bats. He said there could be 12 species during migrating season.

Boyles said the syndrome has been in Illinois for a couple of years, and a decline in the bat population should be expected in the future. He said the disease has a mortality rate of 99 percent in some populations.

Boyles said Maine’s findings can create an effort to research the role of bats in farming.

“From Josiah’s results, we know that bats do have an effect on insect populations, which in turn has an effect on corn production,” he said. “The goal is to take this research and get funding to do this on a much larger scale, so we can start looking at yield production across the entire United States and the effect of removing a bat population on economics.”

Boyles said with his help, Maine secured land at Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area in Granite City to begin his research.

The corn at Horseshoe Lake was perfect for Maine’s study because it was not treated with insecticides, and would be flooded for waterfowl hunting, Boyles said.

Maine created six nets, 65 feet wide by 65 feet long and 23 feet tall to keep bats away from the corn. The nets hung from metal framework and cables. He said he got the idea for the nets based on previous bird conservation projects.

He also had six control plots that were not covered with nets.

Maine said he would take two to three hours to open the nets each morning, so birds and other animals could roam the corn. At night, he would take another two to three hours closing the nets to monitor the amount of pests the bats did not eat.

He also set up bat detectors that could pick up the echolocation of bats in the area.

The pests in question are corn earworm moths.

“It’s a species of moth that lays eggs on the corn, and then the larvae eats the leaves and the kernels themselves,” Maine said. “The thought is, these bats are eating enough of the adult moths to reduce the amount of larvae and damage to the crops.”

Every five to seven days, Maine gathered samples of corn stalks to assess the damage done by the moths. Throughout the project he surveyed more than 1,800 stalks.

Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit organization that works to protect bats and their habitats, was the main source of funding for Maine’s research.

Katie Gillies, imperiled species coordinator at BCI, is pleased with Maine’s research.

“Their [Boyles and Maine] results will provide us with a dollar figure that describes the benefits that bats impart to farmers,” she said. “Given the peril that bats are in, especially from White-Nose Syndrome, this information will be instrumental in garnering support and funding for critical bat conservation efforts.”

Maine, who concluded his 12-week project in mid-September, said he hopes to have his results published by the end of 2014.