Bugs in a solar tube are usually a gap, not a failed daylighting idea. Wasps, miller moths, and attic insects follow light and warmth. They get in at the dome, at a tube joint, or at the ceiling ring. That is not the same problem as rain in the well. Do not caulk the diffuser shut from below and call it done.
Where they get in
The dome. A cracked or unseated acrylic roof piece is an opening. Dome replacement is the swap when that is the failure. Hail in Round Rock and Pflugerville makes this more common after storms. The September 24, 2023 event was the costliest Austin-area hailstorm on record, about $600 million in estimated Travis and Williamson losses, with hail up to about 4 inches in Round Rock.
Tube joints in the attic. Flex runs and elbow kits have more seams. A long offset in a Hyde Park bungalow can have several. Long attic run is the path question. Insects are the symptom that a seam is open.
The ceiling ring. A diffuser that was never seated, or that was pulled for a bulb kit, leaves a gap into the room and into the attic.
A screen, if the kit has one, can be missing or damaged. Whether your model includes a screen is on the sheet. It could not be confirmed as a universal part.
What this is not
A rain leak. Water timed with storms is flashing or the dome. See do solar tubes leak and solar tube repair.
Condensation. Seasonal film on the dome interior in humid weather is not a nest.
A reason to abandon the tube for a framed skylight unless the room wanted a window anyway.
Do not fog the tube with household insecticide from the living room. You cannot see where it goes, and you may stain the reflector. The independent installer should open the joints from the attic and the dome from the roof.
A specific insect species list for Austin attics is not a skylight claim. Name what you see. Photograph it. Let the visit find the gap.
Hyde Park and Allandale bungalows with flex runs collect more joints, and more joints mean more places for a nest. A clean diffuser on Monday and a pile of wings on Friday is a live gap, not a one-time visitor. Do not tape the lens from below. That traps heat and hides the ring.
How Bright Sky ATX fits
We match you with experienced, insured independent solar-tube professionals. The pro you hire finds the gap. We do not. See solar tube installation.
When to call us
Call when insects keep showing up in the diffuser or the tube and you need the opening found on a Travis, Williamson, or Hays County house. Call (737) 477-8898.