What do bats eat?

Different types of bats eat different foods, and their diets may include insects, fruits or blood. Some bats have diets that are beneficial to humans, feeding on insects that spread disease or destroy agricultural crops.

Common small brown bats typically feed on insects such as mosquitoes, moths, beetles, winged ants and mayflies. A small brown bat can eat as many as 1,200 mosquitoes per hour. Fruit bats are known as frugivores and eat foods such as figs, mangoes, dates, bananas, fruit seeds and flower pollen. Vampire bats do not drink human blood as some legends suggest, but they do make a small incisions on large animals and lap up small amounts of blood. The host animal is typically not harmed,