Tips to bring bats to your garden and events this Half Term
Every year the Wildlife Trusts team up with the RHS to encourage gardeners to help support wildlife in their gardens. With the decline of habitats and wild spaces, gardens are becoming ever more important, in the UK alone gardens total a greater area than all the nature reserves added together.
By all joining together we can make a real difference for our wildlife!
This year we are focussing on how to improve our gardens to encourage bats and the week runs from 24th to 30th October 2016, bats are not just for Halloween!
How you can help make your garden bat-friendly
Plant a bat feast: grow plants that encourage insects to your garden so bats can dine on them. Bats need to eat a huge amount of insects to keep them going. For example, a tiny pipistrelle (Which is lighter than a ?1 coin!) needs to eat over 3000 insects per night. Try planting ox-eyed daisies, honeysuckle, evening primrose or sea holly. A damp area or a pond will help encourage small flies that lay their larvae in water.
Think about your garden lighting as light pollution from decorative garden fittings can affect the roost times for bats, fitting a hood to the light may help reduce this.
For more ideas visit this website http://www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk/about or why not join us on a week packed full of bat themed activities
Manx Wildlife Trust has organised these family fun events throughout the week
Monday 24th October at 1.30pm we will be walking around the gardens at Milntown in Ramsey looking for where food and bats might be seen.
Wednesday 26th at 10.00am At the Henry Bloom Noble library a morning of learning about bats and batty crafts, please contact the library on 696461 to book a free ticket prior to the event.
Thursday 27th October at 2.30pm Onchan library come and hear a batty story then create some bats! Please book via the library on 621228 for a free ticket
Friday 28th October at 2pm at the Methodist Hall in St John’s there will be a bat box building workshop held in conjunction with the Isle of Man bat group. There is a cost of ?5 entrance per child, with additional ?10 to cover each bat box kit. Families and friends are welcome to team up and build one bat box between themselves. Later, at 6pm we will explore the Arboretum, keeping our eyes out for hiding bats, led by experts from the IOM Bat Group.
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