Attracting bats to your yard can be an advantage to you and your garden in a number of ways. Do you experience mosquitoes, cut worms, June Beetles, Stink bugs or leafhoppers in your garden? Before you get out the sprays and chemicals to get rid of them think about this: Attract bats.
Contrary to popular belief bats are safe and in fact are beneficial to gardeners. They fly and feed the two hours around dusk and dawn. During those hours they can eat up to 2000 insects. That’s every night. In fact they can eat up to 600 insects per hour. The fear most people have about them flying in your hair and getting stuck, is completely false. Fear of rabies is also unfounded. There has been less than 10 cases of human rabies infection from bats in the last 50 years.
If you choose to house bats you are not only helping your garden, You are also helping the bats. By attracting bats you will diminish the amount of pesticide you will need in to use. This will make your vegetables and the earth much healthier. It’s reported by the World Conservation Union that 22% of bat species are threatened and another 23% are near threatened. You can see the benefits of attracting bats, and decided to use the organic pest control method of bats, so how do you attract them?
Bats need a place to roost at night, trees are good, but if you have no trees you can build a bat house. There are many different plans for bat houses online, or you could get “The Bat House Builder’s Handbook” through Bat Conservation International.
You will also need some form of water. They are partial to fresh water, streams, rivers or lakes within 1/4 mile of your garden, but will be happy with a small pond in your garden.
Night blooming flowers will attract insects which will attract bats. Some plants you might consider are Evening Primrose, 4 O’Clocks, Nicotania and Moonflower. (Be aware that Moonflower can be rather invasive so be careful where you put it.)
If you are putting up a bat house, plan ahead, they tend to move into houses that have been in place for a few months more than houses that have just been put up. Bats begin to show up looking for housing in spring, so you want your bat house in place by late winter.
Your house will serve as a nursery for the bats to have and raise babies, so you want it to be warm and as similar to the space between the bark and the trunk of a tree as you can make it. It will also need to be warm, and be able to keep the heat in, so caulk those edges. To this end, you will also want put your bat house on the side of the building that gets sun. If you put your bat house up and no bats take residence this year, don’t worry, sometimes it takes a couple years for the bats to find a new house.
If you have had trouble with flying pests or bugs and beetles in your garden, before you run for the spray, why not try to attract some bats, it helps you, your garden, the environment, and the bats!
