Introduce bats to your garden

Mexican free-tailed bat

Bats eat night-flying insects and are good garden pollinators, as well.  If you would like to attract bats to your garden, you may want to introduce flowers to your garden that bloom late afternoon or at dusk and are night-scented.  Bats are drawn to night-pollinating insects, like moths, for food.




Here are a few plant suggestions to encourage bats to visit your landscape:

Evening primrose
Fleabane
Four O’clock
Goldenrod
Moonflower
Phlox
Salvia Nicotiana
Silene catchfly

More tips for a bat garden:

Dead trees provide a good habitat for bats. In addition to being a good roosting spot, dead trees provide a place for insects to gather. In lieu of a dead tree, erect a bat house.

Fragrant perennial vines climbing the walls and fences in your garden will provide additional bat roosting sites. Create a sheltered corner by using walls, fences, or hedges grown at angles.

Garden lights will attract insects and provide food for the bats. Bats eat various garden and pests including cutworm moths, and chafer, potato, and spotted cucumber beetles. Some moths can even detect bats and will avoid an area where bats are present.

Bat guano is a wonderful fertilizer for your garden.

Image: The Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), also known as the Brazilian free-tailed bat, is a medium-sized bat that is native to the Americas and is widely regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America.

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