How to Attract Bats to Your Backyard

Some people keep bats as pets in their backyards due to the fact that they take care of mosquitoes and will eat other bugs. However, it is not always easy to attract them or let them out at night because they are nocturnal animals. There are a few tips on how you can create an environment where bats would want to stay without harming your home or making too much noise

The “how to attract bats to your bat house” is a common question that many people have. The article will discuss the different ways on how you can attract bats to your backyard.

Why Are Bats Beneficial to Your Garden?

Bats are nature’s form of insect and pest management. Do you have a mosquito problem? Bats are the solution! All night long, bats eat mosquitos, moths, gnats, mayflies, beetles, and wasps! For example, the North American brown bat may collect and devour up to 600 insects each hour! That’s a lot more effective than the electric insect zapper you can get at the shop!

Another incentive to let bats into your yard is that their guano (bat droppings) may considerably improve your plant soil! Guano is high in nitrogen, making it an excellent fertilizer. Furthermore, bats are pollinators!

They’re just as good as your neighborhood bumblebees in transporting pollen from one blossom to the next! Bats will therefore aid in the pollination and rejuvenation of your plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables!

How to Get Bats to Visit Your Backyard

To attract bats to your garden, patio, or backyard, you may use a variety of instruments and strategies. The methods listed here are the most efficient for attracting bats to your outdoor locations!

Build a Bat House

A bat house is the first and most significant feature to have in your backyard if you want to attract bats. Bat homes are designed to look like the knocks, nooks, and crevices found in decaying trees, where bats love to sleep and live. A bat home provides a bat with a habitat, which is the most critical item a bat needs in order to feel comfortable in an area.

The ideal area to put a bat home is against the side of a structure or pole, rather than amid thick vegetation or trees. Make sure the bat house is at least 15-20 feet above the ground, since bats utilize sight to find their new home.
If you’re constructing a bat home from scratch, be sure to choose nontoxic materials like cedar or plywood.
Bats like rough surfaces: don’t use ultra smooth plywood; instead, use a rough surface that gives the bats something to cling onto when they climb in and out of the home.
Buy a Readymade Bat Home: When buying a premade bat house, make sure it’s BCI (Bat Conservation International) approved. This Outer Trails Bat House is the ideal size, texture, and comes fully assembled with three rooms.
Maintain Bat Home Temperature: In the summer, the temperature of your bat house should be kept between 80 and 100 degrees. To keep the heat out of your bat box, put it in a strategic location and paint it a distinctive color. The box should be placed where it will get at least six hours of direct sunshine each day, and it should be painted a dark color such as black or brown to retain more heat. To keep track of the temperature, tape a thermometer to the side of the box.
A bat home’s structure must feature three separate chambers, rough or grooved surfaces for the bats to latch on to, passage holes, and side vents to enable air to flow through the house. In addition, you’ll need some sturdy mounting brackets to connect your bat home to any structure you choose.
Bat homes should be between 2 and 3 feet tall, 1-2 feet wide, and 3-6 inches deep. They should be suspended at least 10-15 feet above ground.

Dead Trees Should Be Kept

Before you begin sawing down your downed trees, keep in mind that bats like to live in ancient trees. Because hollowed trees with loose bark are pleasant, warm, and give grasping, bats establish their homes there. Dead trees provide ideal bat nesting sites, and if you have any in your yard, they’re free!

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Of course, only Dead Trees Should Be Kept if they are not any danger to people or property.

Invest in flowers and plants that bloom at night.

Insects are bats’ preferred dietary source, however some bats love fruits as well. Plants and flowers that blossom at night, on the other hand, assist to attract pests. As a result, you should grow as many of these types of flowers as possible so that bats may eat the insects that are attracted at night (mosquitos, moths, and so on).

The bats, in turn, pollinate the plants, ensuring a healthy and prolific garden throughout the day! Win-win! Water lily, jessamine, nicotiana, soapwort, sweet rocket, and cleome are all good choices.

Include a Water Feature in Your Garden

A water feature is another addition to your garden that is guaranteed to attract bats. Bats are drawn to water features for two reasons: bugs swarm near it (particularly mosquitos, which spawn in shallow water), and bats drink a lot of water every day.

The greatest bat habitat will be close to water. A birdbath or a fountain will suffice!

During the spring and summer, use bat lures to attract bats.

In the spring and early summer, you’ll have the greatest chance of attracting bats to your garden. If you put your bat box, night blooming flowers, and water features out in the winter, you can lose out on attracting bats since they’ll have already chosen winter homes.

Bats roost in the summer to raise their young in cooler climes, such as the North East, and then move somewhere for the winter. So, if you want to attract bats, put out your bat home in the spring so bats may sleep there throughout the spawning season.

What are the Disadvantages of Having Bats in Your Backyard?

While bats may help you get rid of insects and pollinate and renew your backyard garden, there are some drawbacks to having bats around your house. Bats may opt to raise their young in your house rather than the bat homes you’ve so generously given.

Bats may cause structural damage to a house, and bat droppings (guano) are dangerous for people to come into contact with. Guano may transmit a lung infection called histoplasmosis, which is carried by inhaling the fungus that thrives in guano.

Bats may also transmit the rabies virus. Although this isn’t always the case, they may pass the sickness on to you or your pets. A bat bite may cause a variety of health problems in people, despite the fact that bats are not aggressive creatures.

Finally, bats may carry a different kind of insect into your home, known as bat bugs. Bed bugs are related to bat bugs. Bat bugs, unlike bed bugs, do not enjoy human blood, although they will consume it if it is all that is available. Bat bugs, on the other hand, like to feed on bat blood, as their name suggests. Even so, you don’t want a bat infestation in your house.

The Most Important Takeaway

Attracting bats to your garden might be the answer to any pest issues you’re experiencing, as well as reviving your plants and flowers.

Prevent bat droppings (guano) and frequently inspect your attack and crawl spaces to ensure bats have not set up residence in your real house to avoid any unwanted bat troubles.

You may also find out how to attract butterflies and hawks to your lawn. Both have distinct advantages, but they are both attractive to look at; just be wary of hawks. If you have a spider issue, make sure to look into how to get rid of brown recluse spiders.

In order to attract bats to your backyard, you will need a homemade bat attractant. The recipe is quite simple and easy to follow.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get bats to come to a bat house?

A: If you build a bat house and keep it in direct sunlight, your bats will come.

What are bats most attracted to?

A: Bats are most attracted to fruits.

How do you attract bats naturally?

A: One of the ways to attract bats is by hanging a bat house. Another way would be setting up a fruit bowl with some apples, oranges, and bananas in it for them to eat.

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How to Attract Bats to Your Backyard

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Why Are Bats Beneficial to Your Garden?