Encouraging bats - A guide for bat-friendly gardening and living by the Bat Conservation Trust
Many of us have spent long summer evenings sitting in our gardens, watching as the swifts and swallows in the twilight sky are gradually replaced by bats. These small and fascinating creatures often live in close proximity to humans, using gardens as an important source of food, water and shelter.
Here we offer advice on creating a haven for bats in your garden, along with some helpful tips on how to identify these nocturnal visitors.
Gardening for bats
Gardens can be wonderful places for people and wildlife, particularly bats. A garden that is good for insects is good for bats, as the seventeen species of British bat eat only insects such as midges, moths, mosquitoes and beetles. Whether you have a tiny city garden or acres in the countryside, you can do your bit to help bats.
Bats need insects
Flying uses a lot of energy, so bats have huge appetites! For example, a tiny common pipistrelle can eat around 3,000 midges, mosquitoes and other small flies in a single night. Moths, beetles and craneflies (daddy long legs) are popular with other species, but flies are the main food for most British bats.
Most plants depend on insects
We grow flowers in our gardens for our own enjoyment, but their colour and perfume are really the plants’ way of advertising themselves to insects. Sweet nectar and protein-rich pollen are bait to encourage insects to visit. In return, the insects carry pollen on their bodies from one flower to another so the flowers are fertilised. The key to a successful wildlife garden is to include plenty of plants that will attract insects, and to ensure that your garden has a good supply of insects from spring through to autumn.
Choose the right plants
The key to a successful wildlife garden is to include a wide range of plants that will attract insects, and by planting a mixture of flowering plants, vegetables, trees and shrubs, you can encourage a diversity of insects to drop in and refuel from spring to autumn. Native plants tend to attract far more species of insect than hybrids or exotics, so they should be used as much as possible. Different plants may attract a variety of insects in different ways. Flowers with long narrow petal tubes, such as evening primrose and honeysuckle, are visited by moths; only their long tongues can reach deep down to the hidden nectar. Short-tongued insects include many families of flies and some moths; they can only reach nectar in flowers with short florets.
Try to include some of the following:
- Flowers that vary not only in colour and fragrance, but also in shape.
- Pale flowers that are more easily seen in poor light, so attracting insects at dusk.
- Single flowers, which tend to produce more nectar than double varieties.
- Flowers with insect-friendly landing platforms and short florets, like those in the daisy or carrot families.
The plant list on page two may give you some ideas, although the best method is often to simply watch
and see which insects you find feeding on which plants.
Plant trees and shrubs
These are important in providing food for insect larvae and adult insects, shelter for flying insects and roosting opportunities for bats. In a small garden, choose trees that can be coppiced – cut down to the ground every few years – to allow new shoots to spring from the base. Young shoots and leaves will support leaf-eating insects, even if they do not produce flowers, and bulbs will flourish under the reduced canopy.
Create a wet area
No wildlife garden would be complete without a water feature. Not only will a small pond, marshy area or even a bog garden provide bats with somewhere to drink, but they will also attract insects, as many of the tiny flies favoured by bats start life in water as aquatic larvae. Marginal plants can be planted around the pond to create soft edges and encourage insects further. Goldfish should definitely be avoided as they eat the insect larvae.
Make a compost heap or log pile
Recycle kitchen and garden waste – such as fruit and vegetable trimmings, annual weeds and lawn clippings – to produce useful garden compost, as well as an ideal habitat for insects. A log pile in a damp, shady spot will also encourage insects, particularly beetles.
Avoid using pesticides
Chemical pesticides kill natural predators and so may do more harm than good. They reduce bats’ insect prey, and surviving insects carry traces of poison.
Encourage natural predators
Hoverflies, wasps, ladybirds, lacewings, ground beetles and centipedes are the gardener’s friends, and natural pest controllers. Follow these suggestions and help maintain a natural balance:
- Allow some weeds to grow to provide ground cover for natural predators.
- Leave hollow-stemmed plants to overwinter as shelter for ladybirds.
- Leave heaps of dead leaves and brushwood undisturbed for hedgehogs.
- Provide regular food and water for garden birds, as they are also effective predators.
page 2