Attracting Bats?

Bats provide significant benefits to a garden ecosystem by offering natural pest control, acting as pollinators, and producing high-quality, organic fertilizer. A healthy, diverse population of bats in your area is a strong indicator of a balanced and healthy local ecosystem. Their presence suggests good quality, wildlife-friendly environmental conditions.

Most bats in the United States are insectivores, meaning of course that they eat insects. They are natural predators of night-flying insects and can consume a quarter to a half of their body weight in bugs each night, including mosquitoes, moths, and beetles. This drastically reduces the number of pests that damage crops, flowers, and vegetables, in turn reducing or eliminating the need for chemical pesticides.

Bats can be important participants in the pollination process. While bees and butterflies work the day shift, bats are essentially nighttime pollinators. Over 500 species of plants rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal, including important agricultural plants like agave, mangoes, bananas, and avocados.

Bat dropping, or guano, is a highly effective, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer. It is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are all essential for plant growth and improving soil health. When collected responsibly, guano can be a valuable soil amendment for your garden beds and ornamental plants.

How to attract bats to your backyard

Bats are an important part of a functioning ecosystem, and with natural habitats in decline they need our help now more than ever.  You can welcome bats in your very own backyard by providing food, water, and shelter – creating bat habitat in even the smallest of spaces.  In return, insectivorous bats will reward you by eating many of your unwanted yard and garden pests.

Bat Houses Help

The best time to put up a bat house is in the fall or winter, giving it time to weather and lose human scents before bats return from hibernation in early spring. While anytime works, having it ready before spring's emergence provides the best chance for first-year occupancy, but don't worry if it's late, as bats might find it the following year. In fact, don’t be surprised if it takes longer for bats to move in. However, 90 percent of occupied bat houses were used within two years—50 percent occupancy in the first year. Others may take as long as 3-5 years for bats to move in.

Bat houses are best located in open areas where they can receive good solar exposure. Houses generally should not be placed on trees. Keep bat houses away from outdoor lighting, overhead wires, encroaching vegetation and busy roadways. To attract bats to a bat house, mount it at least fifteen (15) feet high in a sunny spot (south/southwest facing) near water (1/4 mile) and insect sources, away from lights and pesticides. Plant night-blooming flowers to lure their insect prey, ensuring clear flight paths below and around the house. 

Bat houses should be mounted in areas that receive 6 - 8 hours of direct sunlight every day. Internal temperatures should be 80 - 100° F in the summer for mothers to raise their young. Bat houses should face so they catch the heat of the morning sun as it rises.

Click here for more information on how to build a bat house.