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Something has been running around in the walls for weeks, the neighbours in the other half of the semi can hear it too. I only ever hear it in one place at a time, which made me think it was only one critter. It's in the cavity between the houses, between the floors in my house, and in one interior wall. I can't find any trace of any droppings or smell anywhere, or anything chewed.
The neighbours have access to under their house and have put down mouse traps with zero results. Since it seemed to only be in the cavities that I can't access, I figured I couldn't put traps down, so posted some bait into any cracks or holes I could find. No reduction in the pitter patter of feet/claws. Just to see, I left some bait in the loft, and it to my surprise (I've never heard anything in the loft) it has been carried off, without a trace, twice. Still the feet are pitter pattering in the walls. Apart from the bait disappearing (I thought first time I must have made a mistake and not put it there after all), there is no trace - no smell, no poo, no chewed stuff.
Once the farm store is open again I'll go and see about traps now I know there's a spot in the loft where it's been. But what is it? What sized creature trap should I be looking for? What can carry off a bait block and leave no trace? I am experienced in rats and mice and have never known them to leave no trace like this!
Squirrel. They get into lofts sometimes.
Not mice imo - there is a reason for the saying "quiet as a mouse". Squirrels can be very noisy.
Ghosts
Or aliens
Most likely ghosts
Do you have/ can you borrow a wildlife camera? When beset with the same problem as you I found that we had rats. Horrible creatures.
@ambrose good idea! i don't have one but know someone who does.
@ernielynch Mice aren't that subtle or quiet. Thought we had a rat or rhino on in the loft, but the noise stopped after trapping a smaller than average mouse.
It's MI5 listening in.
Was going to say the same thing as ernie, sounds like a squirrel to me. They're noisy ****ers
Id just ( and do) default to rat traps.
Then look for an entry point.
When we had what sounded like mice it was actually bats - coming and going via the attic but the house was a converted old stone building and the could scurry up and down the gap between the stone outer walls and the new timber frame lining the conversion. Just let them get on with it. Apart from being able to hear them (which we just zoned out after a week or two) there was no harm being done.
Is your house built on an old Indian burial site?
Downside of bait can be the smell if it pops it's clogs in the walls.
Mice aren’t that subtle or quiet.
They are compared to squirrels! Yeah you can hear the pitter patter of mice walking on the plaster of a ceiling but I wouldn't expect to be able to hear them walking inside a cavity wall.
Tbh initially I ruled out a squirrel as I thought that a cavity wall would be an alien environment for them (unlike mice and rats they don't live in tunnels) but when Hannah mentioned the loft, and I know that squirrels in lofts are quite common, it occurred to me that the cavity wall might act like the hollow in an old tree.
It's the matrix. This happens when they change something.
Maybe read Broken Harbour by Tara French for some tips?
If you like crime writing it’s one of her better ones.
Some interesting stuff here:
http://wildliferemovalusa.com/squirrel-wall.html
"so if you do hear noises that move upwards or downwards, this will often be a sign that the problem animal is a squirrel. Rats and mice generally stay on the floor of a wall cavity"
We have bats in the loft in our place in Ireland they do sounds like wee mammals when they are moving around when they come in, sometimes noisy enough to wake us. I think we may be a bat nursery for them, but they are quite cute little things.
Step 1, Set up a video camera watching the scene, sit down in an arm facing the offending wall with a bottle of whisky and a loaded shotgun.
Step 2, Start firing once you've heard noises AND consumed at least half a bottle of whisky.
Step 3, Put up resultant video for us all to chortle at in the new year.
😃
think we may be a bat nursery for them, but they are quite cute little things.
And highly protected. I believe that they have legal squatters rights if they move into your loft.
Welcome to the club.
I’ve got a motion detecting camera set up in the loft now, and can confirm the pitter patter of footsteps is indeed a squirrel….and a big un.
I’m still waiting on some bits of soffit vent to stop it getting in, but temporarily I’ve put some rags covered in white wine vinegar which they seem to hate…and so far it has only made a very temporary appearance before I’ve chased it away.
And highly protected
Oh definitely - they are highly protected.
We had them in an old shed as well this summer but that was quite a short stay. Straight across the valley from us they have there own house, an old two storey farm house that has been converted into a bat house, so I think we have them visiting us
First rule of bat club. Tell no one you have bats.
From the three local folk I know with bats who went down the correct channels and regret it expensively.
Ooh, I’d like bats! But I doubt very much they’d be hauling off blocks of bait. They’re very much running vertically… I don’t mind squirrels, but I do mind destruction of my house. Will find a wildlife camera and report back!
so far it has only made a very temporary appearance before I’ve chased it away.
Apparently that can work - if squirrels are repeatedly frightened they will give up on go elsewhere. Banging saucepans is suggested as an effective way to freak them out, and also leaving a light switched on in the loft.
We have mice in the walls which we can easily hear when they are active though they aren't *noisy*. I know where the entry point is but it's pretty inaccessible to me (a loose stone wall abutting our house so the "hole" is hidden), every so often I leave traps outside the house and have caught as many as a dozen in a few days and it goes quiet for a while but they soon recolonise.
When we first moved in 8 years ago, they were occasionally getting into the house but I filled in some holes in the skirting boards and it hasn't happened since. Maybe one day they'll bite through a cable and we'll have real trouble but I don't care about the occasional bit of scrabbling.
Can you speak Parseltongue?
I don’t mind squirrels, but I do mind destruction of my house.
Depends... Grey ones? Get them deaded. And remember if they are grey you can't humane trap them then let them out.
Bats do climb, they have to climb as the y can't take off from the ground
I’ve got one of those Eufy cameras rather than a specific wildlife camera (other makes are available). It’s got a siren that I can set off when the squirrel triggers it and that seems to do the job. I can also talk to the squirrel using the Eufy app, but I’m told boring it to death is not humane.
It'll be possums.
I think it is the smell of peppermint that bats don't like so you could splash some peppermint essence in the attic to dissuade them from returning, if it is bats.
Eugene???
I don’t mind squirrels,
You do not want them in your house. The order of preference for rodent occupation is directly proportional to their size.
They are rats with PR, they chew, gnaw, poo and pee just like rats, unlike rats though they also hoard crap, including food, which they then forget about and leave to rot, or worse to take root.
Mice are preferable to rats are preferable to squirrels.
My guess is rats. There's probably nothing to eat or drink inside your cavity walls, so they'll be using them for shelter/nesting and eating elsewhere, quite possibly the sewers. We had the bastard things under the front room floor and inside the walls elsewhere in the house. My best guess was that they'd accessed the floorspace by tunnelling in from a broken Victorian era drain pipe - the clay cracks - but also that they'd got into the attic by climbing up the inside of a downpipe from the guttering then under the eaves. Clues were dropping and cam footage fo the things emerging from the drain at night... anyway, a one-way rat flap on the main sewer outlet sorted it out.
The basics are that you need to work out where they're getting in then seal that off, then trap owt that's left behind.
I'm not sure squirrels are into cavity walls, so more likely rats or possibly mice, which can make a significant racket when amplified by hollow places. Good luck 🙂
Fwiw . We had rats in the cavity prior to extermination
We had mice once and tried all sorts of traps and bait. The most successful was peanut butter in humane traps. Cought 3 in a couple of days.
Where is the house? Edible Dormice a problem in some parts of England around the Chilterns I believe. Friend had one that broke into her airing cupboard and made a nest in her nice pile of duvets. She was furious!
Edible Dormice shouldn't be confused with native Dormice, but the name hints at a possible solution.
Edible doormice are indeed a pita around here, but they have the advantage of being significantly more cute than the squirrels, field mice and rats. We have a general agreement that the field mice live in the field, the squirrels in the trees, the rats in the fields and the glisglis in my neighbour’s shed. Noises in the roofspace for us tend to be birds in the eves.
The Beast, as it is by now known, shows no interest in traps. Finally got a wildlife camera and have confirm it is indeed a rat. Or rats.
Anyone got a spare Jack Russell?
Call the council. They will send someone round and sort it.
https://www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/residents/environment-planning-and-building/environmental-health/pest-control
Don't mess around You need that/those removed asap and access points blocked.
They multiply quickly and it become an infestation.
There is nothing cute about rats in houses.
Close all the gaps you can find: broken airbricks are a favourite....
Put down lot's of rat traps with some nice, smelly, bait....
Await the apocalypse! cackle with laughter while rubbing your hands together :o)
Peanut butter caught mine. Screw you traps to big planks in the loft. They are hardy buggers and will take your trap for a walk.....we catch one a year usually. Our latest had dug out the mortar between our step and the house and came in through the foundations where they are linteled over an existing drain.
The last one ate through an aluminium hidden valley gutter end.....
The one before that ate through our asbestos soffit.
They were all cremated on site.
We had a ratty visitor a couple of years ago. Gnawed various cables, including the house alarm which went crazy as a result. Showed no interest in the dozens of traps i put down with various different baits on them. Eventually ate some poison (could tell by the poison coloured poo) and died in a wall cavity somewhere that I couldn’t find. It was a bit smelly for a month or two. They are a complete pain so do take action. I found the entry point - they had tunnelled a long way under a concrete plinth.
You need a decent exterminator.
For months I was complaining of scratching and 'patting' noises every night when I went to bed. Everyone said I was imagining things. Nearly drove me demented. Eventually I got a pest control person out. Deffo a rat in the loft. Was travelling between 3 houses. Ended up with poison in 3 lofts. Clearly the rat liked the poison as it had been eaten. Rat ended up in the 3rd neighbour's dog's jaws one morning most definitely dead. I have been, thankfully, tormented-free since. Now, if I could just stop the bloody starlings doing the conga on the roof I'd be laughing
Lived in a rental stone built cottage with a shared roof space and during the cold season became shelter for the mice - you’d hear them scurrying across the ceiling and occasionally one would fall down the plasterboard wall and you could hear it clambering it’s way back up. We put some humane traps in the loft and the final count was 66 mice and 1 field vole. We also had rats that were burying their way under the floor slab. The landlord refused to do anything to close off the eaves as it wasn’t “structural”.
trail_rat
Free Member
Peanut butter caught mine. Screw you traps to big planks in the loft
Username pretty much checks out
Poison. Rats love poison.
Either get the professionals in or https://www.pest-expert.com/rat-poison-28-c.asp
Be persistent.
Is this resolved yet?
Whatever you chose to do, make sure it's not buying retail grade rodenticide. It's usually not strong enough to finish the colony off and can introduce resistance to that product.
Look up CRRU and think similar to antibiotic resistance in people.
4 months later and I have my first kill. 3 at once in 3 snap traps. 2 bodies a bit nibbled. So, yeah, I guess I’m probably overrun. Council has stopped its pest control service. Private killers want £500!
Anyway, for anyone that’s interested, it seems the best bait for rats is… rat 🤢
Anyway, for anyone that’s interested, it seems the best bait for rats is… rat 🤢
Tastes like chicken
Smooth or crunchy?
Smooth or crunchy?
If your chicken comes in smooth and crunchy options I dare say you need another butcher.
@stwhannah You need a dog! I realise after you met my two you’re not perhaps happy around dogs but at the very least a couple of terriers will indicate where your problem is and at the best there will be a swift solution.
@wheelsonfire1 oh heck. I’ve met you irl?! If you had dogs with you I was probably uptight! I keep being bitten/had a go at by them. Best I usually manage with friends’ dogs is ‘hello dog’, in about the way that people who don’t like children deal with sticky toddlers. Sorry about that.
But not opposed to temporary terriers in the loft.
Terrier borrowing is the way forward. Chuck it in the loft hatch, go and have a cup of tea, job jobbed.
I have this problem. Don’t think it’s rats, I’m guessing mice or even small birds. They’re in the wall above my bedroom window. They start scratching around mid morning. I’m too early for them mid-week but they drive me insane at the weekend when I’m having a lie-in. I can’t think of a way to get at them without cutting into the wall. And if I do that, then whatever is in there now has access to my bedroom…
Megasack winner! Fame is so short lived.. terriers in the loft would work but I’d be worried that the insulation would cause irritation!
Anyway, for anyone that’s interested, it seems the best bait for rats is… rat 🤢
They chew their own limbs to get out if your snap trap was ineffective initially
Not mice imo – there is a reason for the saying “quiet as a mouse”. Squirrels can be very noisy.
My mice were noisy as hell. Pitter patter pitter pa... Crack.
I got a few this spring, first time for a few years.