I never knew bats were so important.
But last week I joined the Bat Conservation Trust for a night walk at Chiswick House & Gardens. And I learned something new.
It turns out bats spend a lot of their time helping farmers, especially regenerative farmers. And one of the ways they help is by eating.
They simply can’t resist insects.
So think of bats as an all-night, airborne pest-control service. Because the more insects they eat, the less pesticide farmers need to use on the land. It’s a win-win.
In fact, sometimes bats can do the same job as roughly 30-50% of the pesticides that might normally be sprayed over fields.
Like many mammals, bats have a home range, theirs can cover 100 – 300 acres. About the size of the average UK farm.
Within that home range, they follow well-used flight paths between roosts and feeding areas — often along hedgerows, tree lines, and waterways for shelter and navigation
The most common bat in this country (Pipistrelle) has an insatiable appetite and, like all UK bats, it only eats insects. In summer, a pipistrelle can eat around a third of its bodyweight in insects each night — that’s up to 3,000 midges, moths, and beetles.
So a colony of 100 bats (which is not unusual) will get through about 30 million insects a year. And that’s a lot of pesticide saved.
Their value doesn’t stop there —bats also act as “bioindicators” — their presence is a good indicator of healthy hedgerows, insects, and water quality. And that’s critical for regenerative farmers because they can quickly tell if their land is becoming healthier.
In short, if bats are thriving, their farm environment is in a good ecological balance — and cows benefit indirectly from that.
That’s because bats in this country don’t eat fruit; their diet consists mainly of midges, moths, beetles, and caddisflies — many of these attack crops and livestock. By eating vast numbers of these insects, including biting flies and mosquitoes that stress animals and spread disease, bats help to protect both crops and livestock naturally.
And that’s important, because bats thrive in diverse, chemical-free environments with lots of insects, hedgerows, ponds, and dark corridors — and those are exactly the things that regenerative farmers want to protect and restore.
But even though bats do incredible work for farmers, they’re still at risk.
The number of bats in the UK crashed between the 1950s–1980s due largely to pesticides (like DDT), loss of roost sites, and grubbing up hedgerows.
They’re recovering now, but still need help.
The total bat population in the UK is presently around 6 to 8 million. But many remain under pressure and some are at serious risk thanks to habitat loss, light pollution, and declining number of insects.
Surprisingly, bats make up almost a third of all UK mammal species, not counting humans. That’s more than any other group except rodents.
The two most common bats are the pipistrelles, both are about the same size and weight. And together they make up more than half of all bats in the country.
A pipistrelle typically weighs about 5 grams, which is the same weight as a 20p coin. Its body is roughly the length of a paperclip or small box of matches.
Believe it or not, one plucky little pipistrelle made headlines in 2021, as it managed to fly more than 2,000 km from London to Pskov in Russia.
It’s easy to help bats. Here’s how...
If you’ve got a garden or just a small patch of green space, you can actually make a difference. It’s easy to do.
The RHS and Wildlife Trust have put together some great bat-friendly gardening tips for you.
If you’d like to learn more about bats found in the UK: Bat Conservation Trust - native species.
Tune in to a secret nightlife
Check the health of your local environment. All you need is a Magenta detector or the Echo Meter system for your smartphone. Find out more about bat detectors here: Bat Conservation Trust – Bat Detectors
And if you can, join your local bat conservation group — it’s a great way to support these incredible animals and meet others who care about nature too.