UK Bats

Posted 17 Oct 2016

Wild About Gardens Week runs from 24-30 October 2016.

This year wild about gardens week is about looking at steps we can take to support bats and other wildlife. But don’t wait until October! There are lots of things you can do right now to support wildlife in your garden or community green space.

We are lucky enough to have 18 species of bat in the UK, 17 of which are known to be breeding here – that's almost a quarter of our mammal species.

All these bats feed on insects, some of which are garden pests or nuisance insects, such as mosquitoes. Bats mostly catch insects on the wing, using echo location to home in on their prey. Some bats will pick off insects that are resting on foliage. Here are three of the most common:

Noctule

This bat has long narrow wings and flies in a straight line, very high and fast. It's our biggest bat, but it's still smaller than the palm of your hand!

Common Pipistrelle

Pipistrelles are the commonest British bats, weighing around 5 grams (less than a £1 coin). A single pipistrelle can eat 3,000 tiny insects in just one night!

Brown Long Eared Bat

This bat's huge ears provide exceptionally sensitive hearing – it can even hear a ladybird walking on a leaf!

Why should I welcome bats into my garden?

Most of us are starting to grasp the idea that there are food chains, that gardens do have their own ecology, and if we start losing those higher up the food chain, including bats, that's not good news for the health of the garden.

Moths are a big part of their diet, but they will also go for things that fly in dusk, like biting insects such as mosquitoes and midges. They will even go for beetles and insects on the wing. But they can pick off the odd insect if it's resting on a leaf.

Pest species of moth that will also likely end up as bat prey include tortrix moths, nibbler of many ornamental plants, especially conservatory favourites such as citrus; codling moth, familiar to any gardener who has bitten into a maggoty apple, and leek moth, the bane of leek growers

According to the Bat Conservation Trust, the presence of bats, whose numbers have declined over the last 50 years, is an indication of a healthy, insect-rich environment.

What plants do Bats like ?

Try to introduce a range of plants that will encourage moths and other food sources for bats into the garden, Bostock advises. Flowers with long, narrow petal tubes are favoured by moths; only their long tongues can reach deep down to the hidden nectar. Short-tongued insects, including many families of flies and some moths, can only reach nectar in flowers with short florets.

Adult moths are lured towards paler coloured flowers which show up at dusk such as hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), night-scented flowers such as evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) and night-scented stock, long tubular flowers including common honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) and Verbena bonariensis, open flowers such as cosmos and bishop's weed (Ammi majus), and aquatic plants such as aromatic water mint or purple loosestrife. Native plants attract far more species of insect than hybrids or exotics, so they should be used as much as possible.

We're only likely to see bats in the summer, about an hour before dusk, when they are foraging for food for their young.

How can gardeners attract Bats into the garden ?

Plant insect-friendly flowers such as Michaelmas daisies - these will attract insects such as moths and make a 'bat feast'
Stop mowing a patch of lawn to let the grass grow long, creating a habitat for insect larvae
Retain mature trees in a garden; those with hollows can make excellent bat roosts
Start a compost heap; lots of bat prey will live in it
If space allows, build a small pond or water feature - midges and aquatic larvae are the favourites of the pipistrelle bat
Reduce light pollution which disorientates bats - fit hoods to security lighting and only use low intensity garden lights
Avoid pesticides in the garden, especially insecticides that will reduce the prey of bats
In summer, keep cats indoors an hour before sunset when bats emerge from their roosts