Bat bonanza: How to attract bats into your garden this Halloween

Garden wildlife experts are encouraging the UK public to provide hibernation habitats for endangered bats in their gardens, with Halloween being the perfect time of year to provide a home for winter.

In the UK, there are 18 species of bats, which make up 25% of all UK mammal species. However, with bat populations under threat due to increasing loss of habitat, it’s important we do our bit to provide them with a safe place to visit.

Garden wildlife expert and director at Ark Wildlife, Sean McMenemy, shares his top tips on how to attract bats to your garden during Halloween season and assures being around bats is perfectly safe:

“Bats are mammals like us and have a long association with humans, frequently living alongside us in our houses and outbuildings. Like humans, they only have one baby a year (or sometimes even less) and so every life is precious. The loss of any habitat can take many years or even decades to recover due to their slow breeding rate.

“Bats are not rodents and therefore do not chew wood, wiring or any other material. Being a natural bug deterrent and harmless in the home, bats should be welcome in every garden. In fact, without the ability to share our accommodation, many species would become extinct.”

How to attract bats to your garden this Halloween

The best time to spot bats is at dusk. Bats are nocturnal insectivores and fly around consuming huge numbers of night-flying insects including biting gnats, mosquitoes and moths. The best way to attract bats to your garden is by inviting moths with lots of night-scented flowers.

Sean McMenemy recommends planting evening and night-scented flowers that both look and smell great while also attracting moths to encourage bats to visit, including: evening primrose; honeysuckle; tobacco plant; night phlox; star jasmine; sweet rocket; and night scented stock.

This Halloween, you’re most likely to spot a pipistrelle bat, as they are the most common species in the UK – but look closely as they are small and weigh less than a pound coin.

How to build a bat box

One way to help attract bats to your garden and help provide them with a safe and permanent habitat is to build a bat box.

Bats are sensitive to smell and temperature, so place the bat box in a sunny area of your garden and only use thick untreated timber in construction.

Sean McMenemy shares his five tips for creating your own bat box:

--Use rough-sawn timber (not planed or smooth) as bats need a rough surface for their claws to grasp.

--The back plate should extend 10cm lower than the box itself, creating a ‘landing pad’ from which the bats can crawl up and into the box.

--Above the landing pad, leave a small gap in the base of the box – less than 1cm between the back plate and box.

--Make sure all other joints are sealed to keep the interior of the box dark, dry, and draft free.

--A good idea is to extend the back plate top and bottom as this allows easy fixing on site.

--Now you should have what looks a little like a bird nest box, but with a narrow slit on the underside rather than a hole in the front.

What to consider when attracting bats to your garden

Bats use different roosts throughout the year and also have different sites to hibernate. Unlike birds which nest and move on, bats change locations across the year depending on weather and breeding. Siting a number of bat boxes in different locations therefore increases the chances of occupation. To hibernate, bats seek out quiet crevices where they are safe from predators, which remain warm and dry through the winter months.

Bats use echo location, rather than sight to navigate, sending out high pitched sounds and listening to the returning echoes. Certain garden features such as walls, fences and hedges all create useful navigation routes for bats to use while hunting. Imagining navigating your own garden by echo location will help you work out the best areas to plant for bats. If you have time before your Halloween party, maybe even dig an open pond which bats can swoop down to drink from.

Fun facts about bats

All UK bat species use echolocation to navigate and hunt for insects in the dark.

Bats are the only true flying mammals in the world.

A tiny pipistrelle can eat up to 3,000 insects in a night.

Things we get from bat-adapted plants include dates, vanilla, bananas, breadfruit, guavas, Iroko timber, balsa wood, sisal, Tequila and chewing gum.

Bats are more closely related to humans than they are to mice.

The majority of the world's bats eat insects - just like British bats. In the tropics bats also eat foods like fruit, flowers, frogs, fish, blood, even other bats.

Bats usually only have one baby a year and can live for up to 30 years

Night insects have the most to fear from bats. Each night, bats can eat their body weight in insects, numbering in the thousands! This insect-heavy diet helps foresters and farmers protect their crops from pests.

Bats may be small, but they’re fast little creatures. How fast a bat flies depends on the species, but they can reach speeds over 100 miles per hour(link is external) according to new research.

The longest-living bat is 41 years old. It’s said that the smaller the animal, the shorter its lifespan, but bats break that rule of longevity. Although most bats live less than 20 years in the wild, scientists have documented six species that live more than 30 years. In 2006, a tiny bat from Siberia set the world record at 41 years.

For more on the Bat Conservation Trust click here.