This is our bat facts hub: the broad overview of what bats are, how they live, and why they earn their place in a backyard. Nine general facts across the species, with links out to the deeper pieces when you want them.
Bats have a reputation problem. Sharp teeth, webbed wings, a habit of hanging upside down, and a century of horror films did most of the damage.
Oh, and the whole Dracula thing didn’t exactly help, either.
Three species do feed on blood, and rabies occurs in wild bat populations as it does in other wild mammals. Beyond that, bats are peaceful animals that pose almost no risk to people, and they work through insects and mosquitoes at a rate nothing else in your garden can match.
Bat Facts For All!
So let’s get into the facts.
The Only Flying Mammals
Humans are mammals, and so are whales. But bats? Yep, they’re mammals, too. In fact, bats are the only mammal species that can fly without an airplane.
Bats are incredible in the air, as their unique wing structure is thin yet powerful. Bats can easily fly between 30-40 miles per hour. When diving for food at night, these animals can occasionally reach 80 MPH, depending on species. Talk about one fast mammal!
Bats Don’t Suck Blood
Bats are blood-sucking vampire-esque animals in pop culture thanks to everybody’s friend, Dracula. The reality of the situation is far different. In fact, bats cannot even suck blood at all.
There are three species of vampire bat in the world. These bats lap up blood. They bite their prey and they lap up the blood as it comes out of the animal. There’s no sucking. At. All.
While these vampire bats can do this to a human, it is exceptionally uncommon. Human blood is not what they seek out. They much prefer the blood of a cow lounging in the pasture. So don’t worry!
Eats More Mosquitoes Than Any Other Animals
Ahhh, now we’re talking. A bat’s ability to eat mosquitoes is my favourite thing about these animals. One bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes or insects in a single hour. That’s a whole lot of bugs.
For this reason, many home and property owners have been installing bat habitats around their properties. The bats congregate around these habitats. Many move in permanently.
Then at night, the bats start eating mosquitoes. A typical bat habitat can hold up to 200 bats. So let’s look at the maths. 1,200 mosquitoes eaten per hour times 200 bats? That’s 240,000 mosquitoes and bugs zapped from your property in a single hour of feeding.
I don’t know about you, but clearing 240,000 pesky insects out of an evening sounds like a good way to deal with bug bites and mosquito issues for good.
If you’re having a mosquito or insect issue at your home, the best natural mosquito control comes in the form of a Big Bat Box.
Plenty of the stories you have heard about bats do not survive contact with the evidence. Our companion piece on bat myths, busted works through the big ones: vampire films, rabies, hair-tangling and the rest.
Bat Rabies is Rare
Bats avoid people. They simply don’t have much interest in humans, and most species keep their distance from anyone hanging around. So what does this have to do with bat rabies?
Rabies does exist in wild bat populations, but it is uncommon, and transmission from a bat to a person is rarer still. Surveillance programmes consistently find it in only a small share of the bats submitted for testing. Installing a bat habitat on your property does not meaningfully change your risk.
Bats are not the germ-ridden animals that some claim. In the unlikely event you are bitten, go to a doctor and get it looked at. That is the whole protocol.
Nocturnal Navigators
Bats are superb at moving through the dark, and it is not because they are blind. Every bat species has working eyes and many see well. What sets most bats apart is echolocation: they call out at high frequency and read the returning echoes to map obstacles, distance and prey.
Echolocation works alongside vision rather than replacing it. For how the system actually works and which species depend on it most, read Are Bats Blind? How Bat Vision and Echolocation Work.
They hunt at night because insects are active then and daytime predators are not.
Social Animals
Some bat species roost solitarily. The majority prefer company. Many live in caves that house thousands of other bats, often with several species sharing the same chamber.
A bat habitat provides the same kind of social roosting space. Female bats in particular use them, as they offer good conditions for raising pups in a semi-social environment.
Bat Poop For All
Ok, bat poop for all may be misleading. I know a lot of you don’t want anything to do with bat poop, but…
Bat droppings are called guano. The stuff is a gardener’s dream. As one of the richest fertilisers in the world, guano is big business, especially in Texas. Back in the day, it was the second largest mineral export in Texas, behind oil.
About a Fifth of All Mammals
There are more than 1,400 species of bat worldwide, which makes them roughly a fifth of every mammal species on earth. For a single order of animals, that is a remarkable share. Chalk it up as another bat fact worth knowing.
Populations Under Pressure
Many North American bat species are in decline or listed as endangered, and habitat loss is a large part of the reason. Standing dead trees, the roosting structure bats evolved around, have largely been cleared out of the landscapes people live in.
Bats are a working part of insect control in most environments. Where colonies do well, insect pressure drops. Where roosting sites disappear, colonies have nowhere to go.
That is a gap a backyard can close. Putting up one or two habitats gives a local colony somewhere stable to live year-round. If you want the plain-English version of how that works, read What Is a Bat Box? before you buy anything.
Ready to host a colony? Browse our Bat Houses Collection to give bats a durable place to live.
Bat Facts and Bat Habitats
Bat facts are fun, but the practical takeaway is straightforward. These animals are close to harmless to people, and they earn their keep through mosquito control and pollination.
If you’re looking to clear pesky insects and mosquitoes off your property, a Big Bat Box may be the answer. Handcrafted, species-specific and built to last, it gives bats a place worth moving into.
