What Do Bats Eat?

Bat Diet

What do Bats Eat? Well, you'll be happy to know there's only one species of bat that will suck yours or other mammals' blood, and lucky for us, that species doesn't live in the United States. Since the bats in your attic or home aren't feeding off of you, they get nurtrients from insects, fruit, fish, and small reptiles.

Bats usually eat the same diet if they live in the same area for a long time. If you find that bats in your area eat mosquitoes, they have probably eaten mosquitoes and other flying insects for generations. The most determining factor for a bat's diet is its location, as you'll read about below.

Insect Eaters

These are most likely the critters making noises in your attic or home. The most common species of bats in the United States eat all kinds of insects, including moths, wasps, beetles, gnats, mosquitoes, midges and mayflies. This all sounds great until they start turning those insects into Bat Guano and leaving it inside your home.

Bats eat just as many insects when they live outside your home or attic as they do inside, because they leave their nest to feed. After a bat exclusion there won't be a swarm of insects bombarding you any time you step outside. In fact, installing bat houses can encourage bats to nest near your property and assist in taking care of pesky insects around your patio and yard.

Fruit Bats

These varieties of bat hunt for nectar and fruit in the regions of the world where they live, according to the experts at Centurian. They do a service in the pollenation process of some nectar producing plants, but science says it might not have always been this way; they may have adapted to their environment.

These bats have excellent vision and use sense of smell to locate the plants that they feed on. Unlike the bats in your attic that local bat removal experts can take care of, these nectar-eating bats don't use echolocation as heavily to find their meals.

Fish & Reptile Eaters

Believe it or not, some bats go fishing, and not just on their day off. Occasionally these types of bats will feed on small frogs, too. These bats tend to live in Central and Southern America, and wouldn't be found near your home in the US. Your local Wildlife Control service can educate you on which types of bats are common in your area.

Usually bats don't attack reptiles if they have a steady supply of insects. Bats who feed on fish and and reptiles usually live in remote areas near a body of water that would be a good habitat for their food supply. Most often these bodies of water are located within heavily forested areas.

"Vampire Bats"

Again, you'll have to travel outside of the United States to see one of these interesting creatures. Anyone who does Bat or Rat Removal can tell you this. They inhabit parts of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina, and are highly unlikely to be the things bumping in the night at your house. Vampire bats mostly stick to four-legged mammals like pigs, cows, and other livestock, but in some rare cases have attacked humans.

More contrary to popular belief, even, is that Vampire bats don't actually "suck" blood, but make incisions in their victims with razor-sharp teeth, and proceed to lap it up with their tongues. This common misconception is due to many popular culture television shows and movies in the past few years that have featured vampire characters.

Do bats root around in your garbage?

This is highly unlikely, but not completely unheard of. It is much more likely that what you have terrorizing your garbage bins at night are rats or raccoons. You should keep your receptacles inside until you curb them in the morning, otherwise you'll need Raccoon Removal as well as bat removal specialists to assist you in exluding those pesky critters. The good news is that often times, service companies that remove or exclude bats can assist you with raccoons as well.