Evening bats are found throughout the southeastern United States, from southern Pennsylvania to Florida. They range northward in the central states to Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, and Ontario and eastward into Ohio. It is absent or scarce in the western part of the Appalachians in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Evening bats enjoy roosting in buildings and tree cavities in the summer. Maternity colonies sometimes consist of hundreds of female bats. Smaller colonies have been found behind the loose bark of dead pines and in hollow trees. Evening bats are one of the few bats which almost never enters caves, although they sometimes join the bats swarming about certain entrances in late summer.

Young ones are born in nursery colonies where females congregate together. The usual litter size is two. Immediately after the pups are born, they begin to squeak, and within 24 hours their eyes are open. For the first two weeks, while the mother is at rest, the young stay nestled under her wing. During the third week they are able to fly, and practice until they can negotiate their own turns, land, and hang from walls. Pups completely stop nursing from their mothers at about 9 weeks old, and at this time are able to eat insects on their own.

Little is known of their feeding behavior or seasonal movements. In Michigan, populations of evening bats accumulate large fat deposits in the fall and then simply disappear until next spring.