<P> Little brown bats are insectivores, eating moths, wasps, beetles, gnats, mosquitoes, midges and mayflies, among others . Since many of their preferred meals are insects with an aquatic life stage, such as mosquitoes, they prefer to roost near water . Brown bats forage near bodies of water and move in and out of adjacent vegetation . Evening forages are done in groups and above the water . They echolocate to find their prey . They are particularly good at hunting insects when they are at close range and packed together . When hunting, little brown bats capture prey both by gleaning and by catching them in the air . When in flight, bats scoop up the prey with their wings, while prey above water is directly grabbed with the mouth . </P> <P> Brown bats do not claim feeding areas like a territory, however individuals frequently return to the same feeding sites where they have previously made successful catches . When hunting swarms, brown bats usually select no more than two species . They feed on more species when they are scattered . If they do not catch any food, they will enter a torpor similar to hibernation that day, awakening at night to hunt again . </P> <P> The bats' diet makes this species beneficial to agriculture as it eats many species of agricultural pests . </P> <P> Brown bats live approximately 6 to 7 years and often live well beyond 10 years . Little brown bats are preyed on by a variety of animals, including small carnivores, birds, rats and snakes . Many predators target bats when they are packed together in roosts . Martens and fishers will snatch young or hibernating individuals that have fallen to the ground . Brown bats are also hosts for various parasites such as fleas, bat bugs and lice . Bats are killed by accidents more often than predators or parasites . They can get impaled on barbed wire and burdocks or drown in floods during hibernation . Pesticides can also kill them . However DDT has little effect on the bats . They also seem to have low levels of rabies . </P>

Average life span of north american little brown bat