What do bats eat?
Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. that eat nothing but insects. A single little brown bat, which has a body no bigger than an adult human’s thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams (the weight of about a grape or two) of insects each night. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up—the loss of the one million bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats.
Bats locate each insect by echolocation, then they trap it with their wing or tail membranes and reach down to take the insect into their mouth. This action, as well as the chase, results in the erratic flight most people are familiar with when they observe bats feeding in the late evening or around lights at night.
Other species of bats eat many different things, including fruit, nectar, and pollen. Bats are important pollinators as they fly from plant to plant in search of food. In the southwestern deserts of North America, bats are the key pollinators of saguaro and organ pipe cactus. Tequila is made from the agave plant, which is pollinated by bats.
Learn more: North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)
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White-nose Syndrome mostly affects hibernating bats. More than half of the 47 bat species living in the United States and Canada hibernate to survive the winter. Twelve bat species, including two endangered species and one threatened species, have been confirmed with white-nose syndrome in North America. The causative fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd), has been found on an additional six...
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White-nose syndrome is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern to the central United States at an alarming rate. Since the winter of 2007-2008, millions of insect-eating bats in at least 40 states and eight Canadian provinces have died from this devastating disease. The disease is named for the white fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, that infects skin of...
Why are bats important? Why are bats important?
By eating insects, bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars per year in pest control. Some studies have estimated that service to be worth over 3.7 billion dollars per year, and possibly as much as 53 billion dollars per year. This value does not, however, take into account the volume of insects eaten by bats in forest ecosystems and the degree to which that benefits industries like lumber...
Related
What species of bats are affected by White-nose Syndrome? What species of bats are affected by White-nose Syndrome?
White-nose Syndrome mostly affects hibernating bats. More than half of the 47 bat species living in the United States and Canada hibernate to survive the winter. Twelve bat species, including two endangered species and one threatened species, have been confirmed with white-nose syndrome in North America. The causative fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd), has been found on an additional six...
What is White-nose Syndrome? What is White-nose Syndrome?
White-nose syndrome is an emergent disease of hibernating bats that has spread from the northeastern to the central United States at an alarming rate. Since the winter of 2007-2008, millions of insect-eating bats in at least 40 states and eight Canadian provinces have died from this devastating disease. The disease is named for the white fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, that infects skin of...
Why are bats important? Why are bats important?
By eating insects, bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars per year in pest control. Some studies have estimated that service to be worth over 3.7 billion dollars per year, and possibly as much as 53 billion dollars per year. This value does not, however, take into account the volume of insects eaten by bats in forest ecosystems and the degree to which that benefits industries like lumber...