When creating your backyard wildlife habitat, you may want to think about bats! Bats are a great way to control night-flying insects in and around your yard and garden. Not only do bats gobble up flying bugs — many insects will simply avoid areas where they hear bats.
Do you live in a good area for bats? Here are some qualities bats look for in a home:
- Lots of insects to eat — one bat can eat as many as one thousand bugs each night. You’ll often find bats near water because insects tend to favor moist places.
- Caves or other sites nearby for hibernating.
- Cool during the day. A home in direct sunlight may be too hot for bats to sleep comfortably.
Most areas throughout North America have bats — with the exception of super-hot desert areas.
Inviting bats to your yard won’t interfere with birds or other backyard visitors. Bats and birds aren’t food or housing competitors. Attracting bats to your yard won’t encourage an infestation in your house, either. Let’s face it — if the bats wanted to live in your attic or walls, they’d probably already be there. Putting up a bat house usually won’t open the door to YOUR house.
Bat houses are available in different sizes. A standard single-chamber bat house can comfortably fit up to fifty bats; larger houses with multiple chambers can attract nursery colonies of two hundred (or more) bats!
Make your yard welcoming to bats:
- Have a water source! One water source can attract a variety of wildlife to your backyard habitat. Water attracts bugs, and bugs attract bats.
- Have a roosting site — either a bat house or natural shelters like dead and dying trees. Don’t disturb the roosting sites.
- Have a bat garden — flowers and herbs that release their scent at night, attracting bugs. Try evening primrose, chives, mint, and lemon balm.
- Have a climbing garden. Climbing vines can offer roosting places for solitary bats.
- The right lighting in your backyard can attract insects, which will in turn attract more bats!
- Avoid pesticides and other toxic chemicals in your yard. If the insects are sprayed with toxic substances, the bats that eat them could become sick or even die.