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No discussion of night gardening is complete without a plug for bats and a reiteration of their ecological importance as controllers of the insect population, pollinators, and saviors of the rain forest. And no, mosquitoes are not the primary food source for these nocturnal mammals—bats prefer to dine on juicier airborne crop pests like corn ear moths, with mosquitoes as a side dish. That the bat is friend to both farmer and home gardener is evident in the 3,000 flying insects consumed per bat each night. It should come as no surprise, then, that organic farms have more bats, as the amount and variety of insects is much higher than on conventional farms.
According to Elaine Acker of Bat Conservation International (BCI), a properly constructed and well-placed bat house will encourage a local population to develop, but be patient—this might take months or years. Site bat houses at least 15 to 20 feet off the ground in a spot with seven hours or more of sun and an unobstructed flight path, near a good water source such as a stream, pond, or even a trough long enough for swooping down on for a drink. (Be sure to change any standing water regularly.) Planting annuals that attract insects at night, such as nicotiana and dwarf phlox, will entice bats to a new location.
The battle for bat acceptance, protection, and preservation is an ongoing one for BCI and other bat research organizations. Acknowledging that without bats our insect population would be out of control, the U.S. Postal Service issued commemorative bat stamps (now collector's items). Bat festivals have sprung up in Michigan and Arkansas and at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in New Mexico. In 2002, the Bat Zone, an educational facility, opened to the public at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (800-276-7074 or Organization for Bat Conservation.
Contact Pennsylvania State University's School of Forest Resources Extension Office at 814-863-8442 for:
Construction plans for a bat house that creates a new home for a female colony residing in an undesirable location (such as an attic or barn)
A Homeowner's Guide to North-eastern Bats and Bat Problems
Visit Bat Conservation International, Inc. for information on all things to do with bats and their preservation, including joining with locations in Mexico to promote educational partnerships to protect migratory bats.
