In the reproductive season, Vespertilio murinus is highly synanthropic and roosts almost exclusively in buildings (often underneath roof tiles, eaves, or behind window blinds) and other human-made structures, rarely in trees – perhaps used as temporary roosts (Safi, 2020). Sexual segregation occurs in this season. Hibernacula are not known, but they may, again, be found in buildings, where single bats are occasionally recorded.

This species is an open space forager that shows sex-biased habitat preferences: females tend to forage over large, productive waterbodies, while males use a range of habitats including rivers, farmland, and forest – especially young stands since tall trees are avoided. Streetlamp foraging was occasionally reported (reviewed in Safi, 2020). In Sweden (Rydell 1992), V. murinus diet was dominated by small dipterans (especially chironomids) but also comprised large prey such as moths, caddisflies, and dung beetles. Similar results were reached in a study set in Switzerland (Jaberg et al. 1998). In Russia, based on a small sample size (Pervushina and Gizullina 2020) the importance of dipterans was confirmed, but beetles and other insect groups (Cicadellidae) were also well represented.

Vespertilio murinus is a long-distance migrant whose longest recorded movement is 1,780 km whereas almost all other long-range movements measure < 1,000 km. Migration routes often follow a southwest direction from breeding to wintering areas, with some exceptions, and migratory individuals are often males (Hutterer et al. 2005).

Vespertilio murinus has a wide distribution in the northern Palaearctic. In Europe, it ranges from France and the Netherlands in the west through central, northern, and eastern Europe. The northern limit is above 60°N in Fennoscandia and ca. 63°N in Russia, and the southern limit of its range crosses the Balkan Peninsula (Safi 2020). In Italy, it occurs along the Alps, but a few scattered vagrant individuals have been recorded south of the mountain chain (Dondini and Vergari 2015), in the Apennines. The range of altitudes where this species can be found varies between 0 and 3,000 m asl. The AOO and EOO have not been estimated, but based on the available locality records, they are expected to greatly exceed the threshold for a threatened category.

Outside Europe, the species covers a broad geographic range that spans eastwards across northern Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.

Vespertilio murinusis protected by national legislation in most range states as well as through the EUROBATS Agreement and Bern Convention, where these apply. It is included in Annex IV of the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive. The latest (2013-2018) art. 17 reporting, done under the Habitats Directive, classified the species' conservation status as favourable in the Steppic, Pannonian and Boreal regions, unfavourable-inadequate in the Mediterranean region and unknown in the remaining regions. Although there are no major conservation issues, preserving roosts used by this species in human settlements may be locally important.