Gardening for Bats - Attracting Bats to Your Garden

Bats are quickly becoming welcome guests around yards and farms as research has shown bats to be excellent eradicators of pesky insects (like mosquitoes), essential in healthy ecosystems. This belief resulted in the systematic eradication of bats for decades, especially in the US. Because of this, several species of bats are still considered threatened species. If you’ve been interested in the idea of attracting bats to your yard and garden, create an inviting space for bats to visit.

Studies done by Colorado State University have shown that provided the same method of attraction, bats are still less likely to set up residence in areas that are in suburban and urban areas when compared to rural areas. But, the positive ecological impact bats have on all of these areas is extremely important, so if you live in a suburban or urban area attracting bats to your garden is of special importance.

The first step in attracting bats to your yard requires an understanding of what bats need in their everyday lives. Because the bats that live in the US are primarily insectivores and feed at night, attracting insects that are active at night is critical if you want to attract bats to your home. Here’s how to attract more insects to your yard at night:

• Bats eat lots and lots of bugs. This is probably the most overlooked and important aspect of attracting lots of bats. This means adding night-blooming plants to your landscape is essential. These night bloomers bloom at night so they can be pollinated by night insects - most notably moths. Moths are a bat favorite and a staple in their diets. Lots of gardeners report seeing moths among their annual devil’s trumpets (datura), as well as brugmansia (you can grow these as landscape plants in the south, but they make great tropical potted plants everywhere else). Try adding some potted night blooming plants like datura, Brugmansia, yucca, jessamine, butterfly bushes, lavender, rosemary and evening primrose to your deck, or among your perennial borders to attract lots of bat food.
• Lights can be bug magnets, but... You may live in an urban area that has plenty of lights that are kept illuminated at night. If this is the case, turn off lights in your yard and garden areas so bats can catch insects flying around. If you live in the country and keep your outdoor lights on at night, some summer nights turn them off to welcome your neighborhood bats to come over.

Attracting bats to your farm and yard is good as they are night time predators of night flying insects that damage garden plants and crops. Bat houses are becoming very popular as a way to entice bats to stay close by. Buy a bat house for your backyard. We have 4 sizes to choose from. Our bat house kit makes a great starter bat house. You can put this great kit together during a weekend project with the family.