If you've already had your home "bat proofed" and the bats came back, you're not imagining it, and it's probably not bad luck. In our experience, it usually comes down to one thing: the job wasn't finished the way it needed to be.
Bats Demand Detailed Work
Bat exclusion is some of the most detailed work we do. It's not enough to walk around a house and seal the obvious gaps. You have to understand how the roof is designed and what the framing underneath it actually looks like, because that's what tells you where the non-obvious entry points are. A lot of technicians address the obvious and stop there. Sometimes they miss the hidden spots because they don't fully understand the roof. Sometimes items get left off the quote for the sake of cost. Either way, the result is the same — the bats find the opening that never got sealed.
A homeowner's budget is a homeowner's budget, and we respect that. But with bats especially, cutting corners has a very high likelihood of coming back to bite you.
The Spot Everyone Skips: The Ridge Vent
The single biggest culprit we see is the ridge vent — the long vent that runs along the peak of the roof. Properly securing it with a product like a ridge guard or pest-armor-style barrier is one of the most important parts of bat proofing. It's also one of the more expensive parts of the job.
So here's what happens again and again: the ridge vent gets knocked off the list. Maybe the company never offered it. Maybe the homeowner didn't want to pay for it at the time. Whatever the reason, the single most important entry point goes unaddressed. We've been to many homes where another company came through, sealed all the lower areas, and left the ridge vent wide open. We see the consequences of this multiple times a year.
Bats Don't Give Up — They Live Right There
Here's what makes bats different from most wildlife. When bats are evicted, they don't leave town. They're still living right there in the area, flying around your house every night, feeding, and they've very likely moved into another attic somewhere in the neighborhood. And they will keep trying to get back into your house — the same house — again and again and again. They are remarkably persistent. So if even one real entry point like the ridge vent is left open, it's not a question of whether they'll find it. It's when.
That's why a bat job has to be bulletproof. Every entry point, obvious and hidden, has to be handled the first time.
A Note on Squirrels: Eviction Is the Wrong Move
This is also why the approach is so different for an animal like a squirrel. Squirrels chew, and they can cause significant damage. You don't want to simply evict a squirrel and seal up behind it, because you're inviting a determined, destructive animal to chew its way right back in. Squirrels should be trapped and removed from the property, not evicted. Matching the method to the animal is a big part of doing this right.
The Bottom Line
If bats are back after a previous exclusion, the fix usually isn't starting over from scratch — it's finding the entry point the last crew skipped, and more often than not, that's the ridge vent. If that sounds like your situation, give Piedmont Wildlife Control a call and we'll take a close look at the whole roof, top to bottom.
