International Bat Night is celebrated as an evening event. The honorees are bats, who sleep during the daytime and are active at night. If you’re going to seek out bats, nighttime is the time to look. With over 1,100 species, bats live up to 30 years and can be found all over the world. Bats most often live in caves. But as you know, you can also find bats “in the belfry”.

According to EUROBATS, a European conservation and protection group, tonight is set aside to promote and enjoy these nocturnal creatures. The goal of International Bat Night is to educate people on the good things about bats and to dispel false rumors and myths. EUROBATS encourages bat conservation groups to put on educational programs and “bat walks” on International Bat Night. This night also serves to promote conservation for bats and their habitat.

As nocturnal creatures, bats use “echolocation” to fly around in the dark without hitting things. They emit a sound inaudible to human ears and listen to the echo return to help them navigate in the dark. It is also one of the ways that bats find their food. Tops on their menu are mosquitoes. If you like to enjoy warm summer nights, bats are your friend, helping to keep the mosquito population in check. Bats consume up to 1,100 mosquitoes per hour! While we may not want to talk about it, bat guano is one of the best manure fertilizers for your flower and vegetable garden plants. 

See now, bats are not so bad….. until Halloween. See Halloween Bats

After just learning about the good things about bats, you may still be a little leery or afraid of bats. If so, you have “Chiroptophobia”, the fear of bats….. more phobias