In the last 20 years, a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) has killed over six million bats in the US, causing a severe decline in the population of many bat species. About 90 percent of the long-eared, little brown, and tri-colored bat populations that once inhabited North America are now dead because of this infection. What’s even more shocking is that the decrease in bat population has been correlated to the deaths of thousands of human babies. So, what could be the connection? A new study reveals that as bats declined in number, the use of chemical pesticides on farms across N…