I used to be bat-averse. Now, I’m a bat fan. What happened?
A talk by bat expert Rob Mies converted me. I was a volunteer during a talk he gave at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and not a soul in the audience showed any fear as he lifted each bat from a rack where they hung, discussed its habits and put it back.
But it’s true that many people in the Western World link bats to evil spirits, vampires or rabies. That’s really about us; in the Far East, bats are highly regarded as harbingers of good luck, happiness, fertility and long life.
Bats are actually extremely important to humans and the environment as pollinators and devourers of insect pests, especially mosquitoes.
For more than 60 million years, they have co-evolved with the plant species they pollinate — more than 300 species including bananas, mangos, avocados, dates, figs and cashews. Next time you raise a margarita, thank a long-nosed bat for pollinating the agave plants that produce tequila.
Make bats at home
Bats are beneficial animals, so many gardeners encourage them to live in their yards by helping to provide bat basics: food, water and shelter.
To provide them with a varied diet of insects, (we’re assuming you’ve got enough mosquitoes already), plant night-blooming plants, flowering annuals and perennials, fragrant plants, herbs and shrubs. Among the plants that attract the insects bats eat: nicotiana, evening primrose, French marigolds, four o’clocks, asters, heliotrope, butterfly bush, salvia, phlox, soapwort, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm and honeysuckle.
Bats like to have a water source too, so a pond, water feature or close-by stream is ideal.
Maintain a natural landscape with both live trees and dead snags, if you can make those snags not a hazard.
Bat architecture
If your landscape already has everything bats could want, consider putting up a bat house. Design plans are available online, or you can buy one from wild bird shops or garden centers.
You’ll need to install your bat house 15 feet or higher off the ground, on the south or east side of a house or barn. Putting it on a free-standing pole works, too. Bat houses mounted on trees don’t work as well, because the bats’ view is blocked and they don’t stay as warm. Be aware that the ground below the bat house will collect bat guano, so site it properly for collection.
Three or more bat houses in one area will increase the chance of attracting bats. It may take up to two years for bats to discover your gift, but once they do, you can expect the bats to return year after year.
Driving you batty?
If bats are occupying an unwanted space in your home, allow them time and opportunity to leave on their own — in other words, wait at least 45 minutes after sunset before sealing up their entrance. This is called humane exclusion. Provide an alternative bat house nearby, if possible, and use a one-way device that will allow them to exit, but not to return. You can view humane exclusion tools at .
Keep in mind that new pups — the term for bat offspring — generally won’t be leaving the roost until sometime in the summer, so exclusion is best done in fall to early spring.
If a bat becomes trapped in your house, rest assured that it is looking for a way out. It isn’t attacking you; it’s just flying a figure-eight pattern to gain clearance and make turns. Just open doors and windows and quietly sit down until the bat finds its own way outdoors.
Bat facts
Hungry: A single brown bat can eat 1,200 mosquitoes an hour. If we’re counting all the pests it eats, it consumes its own body weight in insects each night. Insectivore bats use echolocation, or biological sonar, to detect insects and prey, emitting a “feeding buzz” that we can’t hear. Basically, they “see” with their ears, similar to dolphins, some whale species and birds.
Helpful: As a fertilizer, bat excrement, called guano, packs nitrogen and phosphorous.
Habituated: Eighteen species of bats live in Colorado, including the following members of the common bat family: the Pallid Bat, Big Brown Bat, Silver-Haired Bat, Hoary Bat, Western Small-Footed Bat, Western Long-Eared Bat, Little Brown Bat, Long-Legged Bat, Yuma Bat and the Western Pipistrelle. Other Colorado bats: the Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat and Big-Free Tailed Bat, both insect eaters.
Hibernators: Bats hibernate or migrate in the winter. Some of the Colorado species remain here, but their habitats are not completely known. They are very loyal to their hibernating and roosting sites, however, returning each year to the same location.
Healthy: A healthy bat can live more than 20 years. But six species in the U.S. are endangered, and another 20 are threatened, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bat populations are declining because of habitat destruction of summer and winter roosting areas, fear of bats and disturbance by cave explorers, pesticide use and fungal diseases.
BAT RESOURCES
• Rob Mies, director of the Organization for Bat Conservation, (), will be in Denver early this fall with programs at Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Botanic Gardens, PACE in Parker and the cities of Aurora and Wheat Ridge.
Check websites for dates and times.
• The Orient Mine near Villa Grove is home to nearly 250,000 migratory bats. Read more:
• Colorado Bat Society:
• Colorado Bat Working Group:
• Denver Zoo:
