How Many Bugs are Fed Upon by Bats in One Night?

Bugs and insects are the primary food for bats and since they are nocturnal, they fly during the night to catch their preys. Bats can fly for long distances in search of food but when they enter residential areas, they don’t really have to do lot of hard work. This is because they can easily find insects and bugs hovering over the yard. Although, a bat swooping around the dusk around the yard certainly chills that bone inside! Perhaps, it is natural to fear the flying things or squirming of bats but one undoubtful fact is that bats possess a remarkable ability to control bugs and insects around the house. These even include disease carrying mosquitoes and parasites! Yes, we are talking about a big number here!



A bat has an appetite to eat up to 1200 mosquito sized insects every hour and thus can eat 6000 to 8000 insects each night. That is a lot! If you have spotted bats in your yard, then your worries might have decreased after reading this count! It is worth mentioning here that these bugs can be flies, gnats, beetles and even the moths which dig up the yard and destroy the crops. So, if until now you were only reading about reasons to get rid of bats, we have given you reason not to get rid of bats if you are suffering from mosquitoes and bugs infestation in your yard area!

It would not be wrong to say that bats play an important role in the food chain and their role can’t be undermined. Visions of bats are first may conjure up some creepy thoughts, but they have a great hand in influencing the environment. This can be supported by below reasons:

1. Their appetite to eat around 8k insects in one night itself proves the protection cover they are offering to the place. While bees and butterflies help in pollinating the flowers, insects and bugs only destroy the crops and bats help in protecting your yard from these pests. Their ability to cut down on these bugs decrease the botheration and wreaking havoc caused by them to your garden.
2. Bats are termed as night shift pollinators as they go after nectar and bugs which eventually results in spreading of pollen in your garden area. Bananas, mangoes and guavas are dependent upon bats pollination.

Bats don’t attack humans unless they belong to vampire species! But generally, the bats which are found in residential areas or fly over your buildings are the ones which are not dangerous for humans. This might make you wonder why bats cross you when you are wandering during the night! This is because during the night, our body heat attracts lot of insects towards us and bats who are in hunt of those bugs and insects swoop right beside your ears to catch their meal. So, don’t worry when bats do that next time as they just eat that bug and parasite which could have put you in trouble by causing you diseases like malaria and what not!


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