Birds and bats are important insect predators. Herbivorous insects have negative effects on tree growth, and thus the health of trees may benefit from foraging by vertebrate insectivores on herbivorous insects. An exclosure experiment was used to examine the top-down effects of birds and bats on invertebrates and leaf damage due to insect herbivory on tree plantations. The experiment was conducted on two common plantation species of Bischofia javanica and Fraxinus griffithii. In total, there were 18 orders and 1811 individual invertebrates collected from April to July 2016. The dominant insect taxa on B. javanica in the order of the number of individuals were of the Araneida, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Collembola, and Psocoptera. On F. griffithii, the dominant insect taxa in the order of the number of individuals were of the Araneida, Hymenoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera. The abundance of invertebrates, specifically Lepidoptera larvae, was significantly elevated on B. javanica and F. griffithii when vertebrate insectivores were experimentally excluded from foraging. Such results demonstrated that vertebrate insectivores suppressed herbivorous insects. The abundance of spiders was also higher on B. javanica and F. griffithii when vertebrate insectivores were excluded from foraging. In addition to exclusion of vertebrate insectivores, the exclosure might have intercepted the spider’s silk and provided extra net structure for the spiders to weave their nets. However, the abundance of herbivorous insects still increased and did not seem to be influenced by the increased number of spiders. From our results, we concluded that vertebrate insectivores limit the abundance of Lepidoptera larvae on B. javanica and F. griffithii, and thus vertebrate insectivores are important top predators of insect pests. Plantations with a simplified vegetative structure can easily suffer insect pest outbreaks. To prevent severe damage due to insect pest outbreaks on plantations, it is recommended that plantations provide suitable habitats for birds and bats, thus facilitating the health of trees and achieving successful plantations.