i just had one in my house, came in with the christmas tree, was flying in my living roof, I know this doesnt help but its funny
That sounds like a disaster
Have that merit badge. Part of country living I guess. Plug the holes where they can get in and keep a badminton racket at the ready for self defense.
These ones were pretty dumb and looking for a place to hibernate (I'm assuming). I sealed up one possible point of entry and still have the drywall removed. I left the garage lights on to deter them from trying to make a home. So far it seems to have worked.
I had originally heard what I thought was a mouse, pulled the sheet of drywall out, my wife calmly said "oh my god it's a fucking bat". I put the sheet of drywall outside and it flew away. I put the sheet back up and called it good. It was in a very weird spot so I figured there was only one. One new years eve I heard the same noise and looked up to see a claw poke out of the open drywall joint (it wasnt my best patch job to say the least). The next day another MM member came over to pull the same sheet of drywall. Same thing, a bat in the same spot, I figured maybe it came back. I pulled the insulation from the rafters and found one more tucked away in a corner. So those 2 bats will not be visiting anyone's property any longer.
The only deterrent that I seem to find commonly mentioned is menthol or moth balls. Once again, this is a part of the roof that is sealed from the attic. The garage has a hip roof with no attic, when I started finishing the garage I put in some soffit vent baffles on between the rafters, R-15 insulation and then drywalled. I did make a slight dropdown in the center of the garage to make a cavity and insulated it with R60 to keep a small space where the 2 roof vents are. If anything is up top, its stuck because it is completely inaccessible.
I think the bats originally came into the garage when I had the soffit opened during the rear garage door install then flocked to the warmest part of the garage, they were 1 cavity away from my heaters vent stack. So that's the long and short of it.
