Halloween always brings certain species to the fore. Bats and spiders are often portrayed as bad guys, playing on people’s phobias and fear of the dark and all things ‘spooky’. The reality is that both bats and spiders are incredible creatures – so it’s time to shake off the bad press and bust some myths! 

Bats are brilliant! For starters, they are the UK’s only flying mammal and we have 16 of the 17 UK species breeding here in Dorset. They aren’t blessed with the best night vision, so they need to navigate in the dark using echolocation. Basically, bats ‘shout’ at frequencies beyond our hearing capabilities, and wait for the sound waves to bounce back. The echoes help them ‘paint’ a picture of their surroundings and prevent them crashing into objects. It’s hard to imagine how bats perceive the world, but it’s a myth that they will fly into you and get tangled in your hair at least.   

Bats need our help. Habitat loss and fragmentation has caused bats to become increasingly rare, and they are a protected species. They use different habitats to roost and hibernate. One thing we can do is provide more places for them to roost during the day. As well as protecting old trees and enabling bats to access roof spaces - you might consider installing a few bat boxes to create more roosting spots. Another way you can help is to increase the supply of insects for bats to dine out on. Providing food and shelter for moths, beetles and other night flyers is a great thing to do. You can find tips on how to encourage insects into your garden on our ‘Wildlife Friendly Spaces’ webpages – you might even be eligible for one of  our lovely awards! 

More information about bats can be found on the Dorset Bat Group and Bat Conservation Trust websites. Plus, if you’re enjoying ‘Oktoberfest’, why not check out ‘BatFest' to find out more about these incredible (and cute!) species.   

Spiders probably have more of an image problem – their long, dangly legs and sudden movements don’t help! The species which probably makes most people jump indoors are the common house spiders (Tegenaria spp). To add to their spooky reputation, house spiders tend to move around at night, especially between August and October, when the males leave their webs in search of a mate. 

But let’s park the spiders’ creepy image and remember how important they are in the food chain. Spiders are both the hunters - keeping a lot of ‘garden pests’ in check – and the hunted - eaten by birds, bats and even each other. Even the male house spider gets recycled into a tasty meal by his mate after he has died. In fact, surprisingly, large house spiders will be caught and eaten by the skinny ‘Daddy Long Legs’ (Pholcus phalangeoides) you might see dangling from a ceiling. This scrawny predator will happily devour any insect that comes near it and will employ some strange behaviour to avoid being eaten by itself. If disturbed, Pholcus will bounce up and down so rapidly on its web that it can become a blur. An effective, if slightly bizarre, method of predator avoidance! 

Whatever your feelings towards spiders, at this time of year the beauty of their intricate garden webs become more visible. Dew spangled orbs glint in the low sun and may even persist through to the frosts of winter. Remember to keep these, and other garden allies, cosy over winter and leave old stems and flower heads to stand until spring – tidy up as the ground warms and you’ll have a garden full of wildlife next year. 

Halloween is also a time for getting creative with pumpkins. Carving spooky faces seems to get more popular every year. It’s a fun thing to do, but please make the most of the tasty flesh and seeds and don’t just throw them away. Have a look at the Coronation Gardens webpages for some ideas of what to do with your pumpkin. 

After the 31 October, please dispose of your Halloween pumpkin creation with care. Leaving it out in the open as food for wildlife might seem like a good idea, but it can cause serious problems. Hedgehogs are particularly susceptible as they search for food to fatten up for hibernation. They will gorge themselves on pumpkin at the expense of foraging for more nutritious food. Too much pumpkin flesh will give them diarrhea, cause dehydration and risk them not achieving a good weight to overwinter. So please don’t leave pumpkins outside to rot, either put them in a compost bin or use them in hanging bird feeders.  

While we’re on the subject of hedgehogs – please check all bonfire stacks before you light them. Our prickly friends love a bit of woody debris to snuggle into, so it is best to move the pile to its final location before setting it alight. 

Happy Halloween everyone, and please remember the only bad bats and spiders are the ones made of plastic! 

The work of the Wilder Communities team has been supported by South Western Railway's Customer Community Improvement Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund