A bat's favorite food depends on the species of bat, because bats have diverse diets and there are over 1,400 species worldwide with different feeding strategies. The majority of bats in North America and Europe are insectivorous, meaning their favorite food is night-flying insects, including mosquitoes, moths, beetles, flies, and midges, with a single little brown bat eating up to 1,000 insects in one night. These bats use echolocation to hunt insects in flight and are highly beneficial for pest control. Some tropical bats are frugivores, their favorite foods are fruits like mangoes, bananas, figs, and guavas, and they are important seed dispersers and pollinators. Some bats are nectarivores and love nectar and pollen from flowers like agave and cactus, and they are important pollinators for those plants. A few species are carnivorous and eat small animals like frogs, lizards, and even other bats. The three species of vampire bats found in Latin America feed on blood from livestock and birds. So there is no single favorite food for all bats, but for the common bats around houses, insects are the favorite, which is why having bats around reduces mosquitoes and crop pests. If you want to attract insect-eating bats, reducing pesticide use so insects are abundant and installing a bat house helps.
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