Creatures of the Night: Bats of Michigan

October 22, 2025

By: Erin Parker, Interpretive Services Supervisor

Bats of the World

What comes to mind when you think about bats? While many of us may only notice bats when the spooky fall decorations hit the local stores or when we see them swooping around streetlights in the summer, bats are an important and often overlooked part of our ecosystems.

While bats may be one of our more overlooked groups of animals, they actually make up a full 20% of the mammal species on the planet. In fact, in early October (of 2025) the 1,500^th species of bat was identified. Across the world, bats come in a huge variety of sizes, eat a wide range of diets, and have a plethora of uniquely adapted features that help them survive and thrive in diverse habitats.

Around the planet, bats eat fruit, nectar, pollen, insects, and some are even adapted to catching fish.

Bats of Michigan

Michigan is home to nine species of bats and all of them eat a diet entirely composed of insects. Our bats are not the scary animals from mythology, Michigan’s bats are tiny- most species are thumb-sized even when full grown! In fact, our “biggest” bat, the hoary bat, is equivalent in weight to 28-30 standard paperclips. With a wingspan of between 13-17 inches, hoary bats, named for the frosted look of their fur, are nearly all wing!

Insectivorous or insect-eating bats eat a lot of bugs each night- capturing between 600-1000 flying insects per bat. That makes them incredibly beneficial in the landscape. Bats eat everything from moths to beetles, including things that humans consider pests such as mosquitos and even agricultural pests that damage crops.

All of our bats utilize echolocation to help them navigate and to find food. Echolocation uses high pitched sounds that bounce of objects and when those sound waves return to the bat, they are adapted to determine what the object is- something tasty to eat or an obstacle to avoid. Most species in North and South America use echolocation but in other parts of the world, bats are using their vision and sense of smell to find fruit and other stationary food sources.

Fact or Fiction

There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about bats. While vampire bats do exist, and are considered ‘sanguinivores’ or blood-eaters, they primarily consume blood from livestock like cows, pigs, and chickens. And they don’t usually harm the animal in the process… instead they have anti-coagulants in their saliva that keeps a small cut from their teeth from closing up until they’ve lapped up their meal.

Bats are also not blind. Many bats have large eyes that they use for locating fruit and other colorful food sources. In North America, where all of our bat species use echolocation, their tiny eyes may be hidden in their fur, but they do utilize perfectly-good vision.

Another commonly-held belief is that bats will fly into your hair. In fact, bats are agile flyers as they chase after insects on the wing. While they may fly near a person, that’s likely because we’re attracting their dinner: insects attracted to our warmth and the carbon dioxide we breathe out likely then get the attention of bat predators.

Finally, while bats can have rabies and nobody should handle any wild animal that they encounter without training and proper safety precautions, rabies in bats is very uncommon. If a bat ends up inside a house, trying turning out the lights and open a door or window to help it find its way back outside. If it lands and you can safely scoop it into a box, much like you might remove a big spider or a wasp, you can relocate it outside (do not touch the bat with your bare hands, put on leather or sturdy gloves first).

Bats also cannot fly from the ground like a bird. They are adapted to “dropping” into flight from their unique upside-down positioning, so they should be placed high on a tree limb or wall. They’re good at climbing with their feet and thumbs, so they should be able to get away from predators and take flight when darkness comes again.

Take Action for Bats

Bats in our backyards and parks benefit from many of the same things that benefit other wildlife.

• Planting a variety of native, flowering plants attract the insects that bats eat
• Consider adding some night-blooming flowers that entice moths and other night-flying insects that are especially active when bats are hunting
• If there is a water source (such as a pond) available, bats use the water to drink and hunt over the water.
• Reducing the use of chemical applications that impact insects can help support healthy bat populations- any insects that consume pesticides can then be consumed by bats, moving those toxins up the food chain
• If you have bats in an attic or indoor space, wait until the fall when the bat pups are grown up and all the bats are fully flighted before closing off the access points.

Resources

Bats Up Close

Great Lakes Bat Festival at Lake St Clair Metropark Nature Center

• Sunday, October 26^th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.