By BLANCHE HARDY
Contrary to general fears, bats are beneficial and serve as an important part of Florida’s ecosystem. They are the only significant predators of night-flying insects in the state, and all 13 species of bats found in Florida are protected.
Bats do not target people and will avoid humans at all costs if they are able. Florida’s bats are small, roughly the size of a thumb, wings folded.
They use natural roosting shelters such as trees, palms, rock crevices, and caves during the day but may roost in human occupied structures if convenient and accessible where natural structures are missing. The best way to prevent bat occupation is to install exclusion devices, when seasonally permitted, which allow bats to exit but block them from returning to their roosts.
Bat protection is governed under Florida Administrative Code rule 68A-4.001 General Prohibitions. It is illegal to kill, harm or harass bats at any time of year. Bat conservation is particularly important between April 16 to August 14, during which it is also illegal to harm, to exclude or damage bat roost structures, destroy bat roosts or block the exit/entrance to bat roosts.
Spring and summer are bat breeding and youth raising seasons and the rule is designed to protect maternity colonies with newborn bat pups. Each female bat typically has only one pup per year, typically born in April or May and cannot fly until July or August. A roosting colony of female bats will stay within the same roost for the entire maternity season. Pups remain inside the roost while the adult females fly out of the roost to find food and return in the morning to feed the pups.
The use of exclusion devices is limited to between August 15 and April 15. Blocking a roost during this season may block juvenile bats inside where the pups will die of starvation. The decay of dead bats can produce offensive smells and attract pests. It is also not legal to trap bats and relocate them. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has specific rules for properly conducting an exclusion and it is prudent to hire a professional to ensure the work is done properly.
Florida regulations also prohibit the use of pesticides or poisons for the purpose of harming, killing or deterring bats at any time.
Bats have a number of beneficial aspects. As pollinators, bats are beneficial to plant life and agriculture, they are vital for pest control by consuming insects such as mosquitoes and bat guano supports the complex and unique cave community ecosystems of a wide variety of creatures from insects to amphibians, fish, and mammals.
We can help conserve bats by installing a bat house, avoiding disturbing bats during hibernation and maternity seasons and preserving natural roosts such as cavity trees.
Guidance for the installation bat houses is available through FWC and University of Florida’s IFAS.
“Not all artificial roosts are created equal. Previous work in our lab has shown some bat boxes can be very dangerous for bats because they can’t properly buffer against temperature swings,” said Joy O’Keefe, associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who lead researchers partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FWC to study Florida’s federally endangered Florida bonneted bat (Eumops floridanus), one of the rarest bat species in the United States.
FWC has information available on its website about bats. If someone is aware of and can observe a colony of bats nearby, they can help the Florida Bat Working Group in collaboration with FWC to monitor bat roosts, using the Florida Bat App through the Florida Bat Working Group. Maternity season is an especially useful time to monitor bat roosts and presence of young bats can be reported in the App.
