The conversion of natural lands to agriculture is a leading cause of the worldwide loss of biodiversity. In
particular, cropland monocultures alter insect abundance and diversity compared to adjacent natural
habitats. While agricultural lands can provide large numbers of insect pests as prey items to predators
such as bats, insect pest population size vary greatly throughout growing seasons. This study assesses
the importance of land use and corn earworm moth availability as spatial and temporal drivers of bat
activity. We quantified spatial variation in land use patterns at fifteen sites located within the Winter
Garden region in south central Texas and used bat detectors and insect pheromone traps to monitor
nightly bat activity and corn earworm moth abundance across the landscape and throughout most of
the year. Our temporal analyses show that bat activity was positively correlated with moth abundance,
but only early in the growing season when moth abundance is at its peak. The key result from this study
is a positive relationship between bat activity and natural habitat cover during late summer months, corresponding
to periods of low moth abundance and a peak in bat activity. During the late summer period,
bats were more active at sites containing a larger percentage of natural habitats than those containing a
larger percentage of agricultural land. Our results strongly suggest that intensive agricultural practices
create systems providing bats with inconsistent resource supply, but the persistence of natural habitats
provides consistency in food supply though time. Taken together, these findings illustrate the importance
of protecting and restoring natural habitats for the conservation for bats and the pest-suppression services
they provide in agricultural ecosystems.