GARDENERS in South Lakeland are being urged to help bats this autumn during Wild About Gardens Week.

The Royal Horticultural Society, wildlife trusts and the Bat Conservation Trust aim to inspire gardeners to help these special creatures until October 30.

These flying mammals are under threat as there are fewer wooded areas, ponds and open grass spaces for bats to feed and roost because they have been replaced by roads and buildings.

Links to the countryside, like hedges and front gardens that make up green corridors, have been lost or fragmented.

David Harpley, Conservation Manager at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “Careful planning of your garden will increase the value of your green space to bats and other wildlife, however small it is.

"As bats need a huge number of insects, a garden that is good for insects is good for bats. Even a window box or tiny town garden can attract insects, which in turn attract bats. Planting herbs and aromatic flowers such as lavender is a great start, along with night-scented flowers like evening primrose.”

Gardeners can find out more about how to attract and support bats in your garden with a free downloadable booklet ‘Stars of the Night – working together to create a ‘batty’ neighbourhood’. It contains:

• Great ideas for planning a bat-friendly garden, balcony or window-box

• Details of which bats are most likely to visit your garden and how to listen for them

• A seasonal guide to what bats are doing throughout the year

• Advice on reducing outdoor lighting - floodlit gardens are detrimental to bats

Take part in the Plant a bat feast! competition to find the best insect-friendly plant display in the UK by sharing a photo of your bat-friendly border for a chance to win some great prizes, including a bat box, a bat detector and a visit from a bat expert. All information on the competition, events and advice can be found at www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk

Find a Wild About Gardens Week event at www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk/events

Cumbria has eight, or possibly nine, species with probably 80 per cent or so consisting of the common or soprano pipistrelles.

Pipistrelles roost in buildings and prefer the home comforts of modern houses, where they roost in small cavities, usually under the eaves, rather than the roof space itself.

Despite their small size, weighing between four and eight grams, they can eat thousands of small insects, such as midges and flies, in a single night, foraging widely often three or four kilometres from their roost and often near water.

Bats are protected and should not be handled or moved by anyone not authorised to do so.