It’s bat maternity season! What does that mean? This is the time of year when female bats give birth to their “pups” (aka, baby bats).  Female bats often live together in a group (known as a colony) to raise their pups.  Bats typically have only 1 pup each year, usually in April/May. Pups can’t fly for the first several months, so this is an important time to protect bat roosts.

All 13 species of bats that inhabit Florida are protected year-round; it is illegal to kill, harm, or harass any bats. From April 16^th  – August 14^th, it is further unlawful to destroy bat roosts or block the exit/entrance to bat roosts (Bats in Buildings | FWC). If roost exits are blocked, the bats can be trapped inside or the mothers may fly out in the evening to forage and unable to return to their pups. The pups will die of starvation.

Bats use many places as roosts, including native trees, palms, natural crevices, and caves. Occasionally, a colony is found in a human-made structure or may use a “bat house”. Bats are an important part of our ecosystem as the only major predator of night-flying insects. All bats in Florida eat insects, including moths, beetles, and flies such as mosquitos; they can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. Many of these insects are considered agricultural or human pests, so having a bat colony around can be very beneficial.

The Florida Bat Working Group in collaboration with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission created the ‘Bat App’ as a tool for anyone to help monitor bats in Florida. If you have a bat roost near your home (in a bat house, tree, palm, culvert, building, or anywhere), you can help by conducting an emergence count and submitting the roost description on the Bat App. Maternity season is an especially useful time to monitor bat roosts and presence of young bats can also be reported.

For more information about the Bat App, visit the citizen science page of the  Florida Bat Working Group website. You can also reach out to Shelly Johnson with questions. Shelly will be hosting a bat outreach table at the Spring Fest at Field & Fork Gardens (right in front of the UF Bat Houses) on April 18th, 2025. See you there!

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