Bats are friends, not foes

Bat can be noisy neighbours. If you live along the coast or near a known roost site, there are some measures you can take to make living with flying-foxes a little easier:
• bring your washing in at night
• park your cars under shelter
• keep doors and windows closed at dawn and dusk to reduce disturbance during fly-in and fly-out
• remove or cover fruit and flowers on fruiting and flowering trees on your property
• keep dogs and cats inside at night and away from roost sites. Keep pet food and water indoors.
• move quietly near roost sites to avoid disturbance – they make more noise when disturbed.

There are also some simple, non-harmful deterrents which may help on your property, such as:
• creating a visual/sound/smell barrier with fencing or hedges with plants that do not produce edible fruit or nectar-exuding flowers.
• planting a buffer of low vegetation such as shrubs, providing a screen between your yard and roosting/feeding trees.
• placing predator decoys (e.g. owls) or reflective/shiny deterrents (e.g. CDs or aluminium foil strips) on verandas or in trees.
• keeping food or habitat trees trimmed.
• when landscaping, plant fruit or habitat trees away from your home (or don’t use these plants at all).

Flying-foxes are the most important species for plant pollination, meaning they play an extremely important role in helping keep our native forests of the Sunshine Coast healthy.

So now, more than ever, we need to find ways to co-exist with these incredibly important native neighbours.

Learn more about flying foxes as sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/flyingfox