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Bats can eat up to 1,000 insects per hour, and they work as pollinators while the bees sleep. Move over, bees. How bats step in as nature's 'third-shift' pollinators
In Austin, Texas, a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats summers (they winter in Mexico) under the Congress Avenue Bridge 10 blocks south of the Texas State Capitol. It is the largest urban colony in North America, with an estimated 1,500,000 bats. [38] Each night they eat 10,000 to 30,000 lb (4,500 to 13,600 kg) of insects.
An often-mentioned statement is that "bats can eat 1000 mosquitoes per hour." [37] [38] [39] While the little brown bat does consume mosquitoes and has high energetic needs, the study that is the basis for this claim was an experiment in which individuals were put into rooms full of either mosquitoes or fruit flies.
Like all bats in the United States, [54] big brown bats can be affected by rabies. The incubation period for rabies in this species can exceed four weeks, [55] though the mean incubation period is 24 days. [54] Rabid big brown bats will bite each other, which is the primary method of transmission from individual to individual.
Bats' biggest boon to humans may be in their diet. A single bat can eat thousands of insects per night, ridding the air of mosquitoes and other pests. Bats may be a scary Halloween symbol, but ...
Insectivorous bats may eat over 120 percent of their body weight per day, while frugivorous bats may eat over twice their weight. [148] They can travel significant distances each night, exceptionally as much as 38.5 km (24 mi) in the spotted bat ( Euderma maculatum ), in search of food. [ 149 ]
Bats in Indiana were found to prefer beetles, moths, mosquitoes, midges, leafhoppers, and wasps. [50] Other arthropod groups which are consumed by Indiana bats in very limited quantities are lacewings (Neuroptera), spiders (Araneae), stoneflies (Plecoptera), mayflies (Ephemeroptera), mites and ticks (Acari), and lice (Phthiraptera). [23] [44]
They typically fly straight and relatively fast for bats; some species are slower with greater maneuverability. Species can commute 20–50 km (12–31 mi) in a night. Migratory species of the genera Eidolon , Pteropus , Epomophorus , Rousettus , Myonycteris , and Nanonycteris can migrate distances up to 750 km (470 mi).