How to Encourage Bats into Your Garden?

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If you are gardening for pollinators, then you are probably also attracting all insect life. And if you are doing that, then you might also invite BATS!

I think bats have had some really bad press. They have become the Trump of the small flying animal world. However, their bad press has nothing to do with them, but some urban myths and some mis-founded rumours.

Think more Robert Patterson’s vampire and less Christopher Lee. Or this cutey.

They are definitely not blood-suckers. They are definitely not vampires in disguise and they are not all pestilence ridden. They don’t cause Covid-19 (Opens in a new window). You can’t catch Ebola from UK bats; some European bats could have rabies or European Bat Lyssavirus (EBLVs) but they would have to bite or scratch you – which is highly unlikely unless you were also flying about catching flies. If you do find a grounded bat, the bat experts say you must wear protective gloves.

If you see bats – then HURRAH. It also means that you have a really healthy environment full of insects.

They are super shy, so if you do spot one – brilliant!

What are bats really like?

Let me dazzle you with some bat facts (only recently learnt myself after becoming a bat foster mummy).

There are 17 species of bat in the UK
Bats can see in the daytime, but they just use echolocation to find their food in the dark
Bats hang upside down in cracks, hollow trees, caves and eaves and tile spaces in rooves
Bats living in groups called a colony
A bat mum gives birth to one baby that she looks after until they can fly
Baby bats are called pups
Bat poo very quickly dries up and turns to dust
Bat poo is also known as guano and is full of nitrogen
Bats hibernate from December to February
Bats don’t like to fly when it’s windy or rainy
The most common bats you will find in a garden in the UK are the common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, brown long-eared bat, noctule and Daubenton’s bat.
Bats eat mosquitos, midges, caterpillars, gnats and large beetles
Bats can act as pollinators too! They pollinate blue agave plants which make tequila

What are the benefits of having bats in your garden?

Having bats in your garden is actually a GREAT thing. Bats are in actual fact, the dark knights of the backyard garden.

Bats keep pests down like mosquitoes and craneflies. They can even eat up to 3,500 midges a night. Now if you live in Scotland – this fact will be reason alone to read on.

In the US and Canada, they have been found to eat up corn rootworm moths (Opens in a new window)!

Why do bats need our help?

Bats are actually threatened by changes in our countryside like deforestation, loss of meadows, and intensive agriculture. Fragmented parcels of land and the use of chemicals are cutting down insect numbers and the bats’ source of food.

How can you encourage bats into your garden?

We have a small colony of pipistrelle bats leaving in our eaves. They have been here for years. It wasn’t until we tried to rescue a grounded pup, that we discovered we had accidentally created a garden PERFECT for bats!

Grow native plants
Plant night-scented flowers
Plant long necked and flat flowers
Plant a moon garden
Plant insect friendly trees
Have a source of water
Put up a bat box
Stop using pesticides and herbicides
Keep cats inside at night time
Have a compost heap

Grow native plants
Native plants and flowers are much better than non-native and exotic plants. The natives are more likely to support the local insects in your garden. You also want a good variety of plants to help provide nectar right through the year.

Plant night-scented flowers

The best plants for night scent are Tobacco plants (Nicotiana affinis), Stocks (Matthiola abicornis) and Matthiola perennis ‘Alba’ (Opens in a new window), Night phlox (Zaluzianskya ovata), Jasmine, Sweet William, White Campion (Opens in a new window) (Silene latifolia), Angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia suaveolens), Pinks (Dianthus ‘Memories’), Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa), Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana (Opens in a new window)’)and Hesperis (Sweet rocket)

Plant long-necked and flat flowers

Long-necked flowers like Lonicera (honeysuckle) or Oenothera odorata Hook. & Arn. (Evening primrose) will attract moths with long tongues. Insects with shorter tongues will prefer flowers like daisies, annuals like cosmos or umbellifers like Angelica archangelica and Eringium spp. (Sea Holly).

Leucanthemum vulgare, (Ox-eye daisies) Sage, Anemones and chrysanthemums are good for the autumn. Crocus, Snowdrops, Mahonia and Hellebores are good choices for winter.

The RHS has a comprehensive list of plants for pollinators that you can access here. (Opens in a new window) Quite helpfully, it lists plants by season, so you know you have a good mix of plants to cover all year.

Plant a moon garden

Just type ‘moon garden’ into Pinterest and you’ll find thousands of ideas. Basically, a moon garden has white plants that appear luminous in the light of the moon. A bit like the Dong with the luminous nose.

These plants release their scent at night because they want to attract moths and beetles. Try white dog roses, white buddleias, and white lavenders. You can check out my Pinterest board for other white flowers here. (Opens in a new window)

Plant insect-friendly trees

Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum) with its pink pea-like flowers is a deciduous small tree from the Mediterranean, but very hardy (H5 – down to -10 degrees C). Indian bean tree (Catalpa bignonioides) flowers in summer and has massive bright green heart-shaped leaves.

Have a source of water, like a patio pond
Just a bucket will do to make a small patio pond. Just make sure you fill it with rain water and put in some rocks for animals to rest on and use to drink from. Then you can pop in some water plants like water mint Mentha aquatica, Cardamine pretensis, Caltha palustris (Marsh marigold) to attract the insects. We made one out of an old sandpit, and now have frogs and a lot of insects.

Put up a bat box
A bat box is a bit like a bird box, except there is a slit at the bottom with a grooved wood ladder running up inside. This is where the bats cling on to roost. Make sure you put it at about 4 metres high and on a wall or tall tree. Make sure it is a sheltered position and gets some sun too.

Also, don’t treat the wood with anything as bats have sensitive noses.

Check out the Bat Conservation Trust’s page on ‘Bat Boxes (Opens in a new window)‘ for more advice. We bought ours from Amazon (Opens in a new window). The Wildlife World Original Bat Box (Opens in a new window) has a double chamber with no chemical treatments.

Stop using pesticides and herbicides

The general rule should be if you want animals and insects in your garden don’t use chemicals that will kill them. Even the bad ones I’m afraid. Try buying in natural predators like lacewings, parasitic wasps and lacewings. If you have a pond then you will be attracting toads and frogs as well as hedgehogs – all of which will help keep pests numbers down. Check out this post on zero waste organic gardening for more tips on how to garden without chemicals here. (Opens in a new window)

Keep cats inside at night time

Cats love to catch bats when they come out at night. Grounded bats are also vulnerable to bat attack. Keeping cats indoors at dusk is a great help.

Keep the lights low

Having masses of outdoor lighting can affect the bat’s roosting area. Bats will avoid highly lit areas or even abandon a roost that is too bright. If there is too much light at dusk they may have to delay their feed which impacts how much they can catch and eat that night.

If you want to support bats then why not become a member of the Bat Conservation Trust (Opens in a new window). Or check out the “Stars of the Night (Opens in a new window)” booklet all about UK bats.