Ok, I'm scared. Our cat caught and killed a rat a few days ago, left it outside the door, and suddenly I'm hearing loud scratching noises from the attic above my room... Scurrying noises too, so it's not just mice. This happened once before, in our kitchen, but much louder - and we had strip lighting in there at the time, the rat got into the hollow bit where the light was, and managed to scratch through, and poked its nose into the kitchen - utterly terrifying. Rats are one of the things I'm most scared of... and I live in between two fields!

Anybody here who knows if it sounds like a rat? No squeaking, but scurrying and scratching. I don't have strip lighting in here - do you think it could get through the ceiling?

I'm scared to sleep!

It could well be rats. If so, nip up to your hardware store and get some warfarin. That'll sort the little ######s.

When we've had field mice in, the scratching can sound really loud depending on where they are, so it could just be a wee mousie.

Better to make sure though and get some poison down!


edit.. p.s - if you're using traps, they love chocolate

Could be a ghost!

Like the start of "The Exorcist"? Be more worried if there are no rats

Could be a mouse - they scurry a lot too. Can you put the cat in the attic? Or sleep in the spare room / on a sofa somewhere else.

We had a cat that just loved going into the attic - as soon as we got the stepladder positioned under the hatch she would be up it in a flash. The difficulty was persuading her to come out again....

Could it be squirrels getting in? We get loads of the little grey creatures as we have a huge oak tree in the garden and they are always busying around. Having said that we had a rat hole under the kitchen a few years ago. The council environmental health people will deal with it for free if you give them a ring. After that I heard stratching and scurrying in our attic - I called them again and they only found mice business up there! Haven't heard much noise this year.

I would give the council a call - good luck

I've never seen The Exorcist I was put off at the age of ten from a special visit from a friend of my mum - my brother, and his friend (mum's friend's son) had got hold of it secretly, my brother's friend was traumatised and having nightmares. My brother was too, and I'd always thought of him as oh-so-brave so I assumed it must be utterly horrifying. Anyway I didn't think of ghosts!

Our cat can't go up into the attic - we were all astounded she caught the first rat. She's such a runt she'd be eaten alive if there were more than one. We'll have to phone a rat man, if it turns out to be rats, but our attic is almost impossible to get into (for humans!) the people who owned our house before us, built a bit so that in order to get into the attic, you have to put a long ladder on the stairs - not very safe.

Squirrels wouldn't be half as scary! I like that idea.. but the scratching starts at night, are squirrels more likely to move during the day?

Didn't mean to scare you! The film was banned for a while, but compared to the gore you see now, it's not scary in that sense. The book is good...if you like that sort of thing

Anyway I'm sure it's either rats or mice. Mice are probably more likely. We have managed to block most of the places we think they were getting in and didn't have any last year, although there's always that opportunity when I nip out with the dog at night and leave the back door open for minute..oops!

You hear them during the day sometimes but usually it's a night. It sounds really close but it's usually just because the noise is amplified through the floorboards.

Keep your bedroom free of crumbs if you can. Any that have been spotted in our house have been in my sister's disgusting room (old pizza boxes etc...), so I can sleep quite soundly

Haha don't worry I'm not scared of ghosts... Although I read your post, and as it happens I'm reading "Strange Meeting" at the moment - on the front is a picture of a soldier with a shadow so you can't see his eyes - but the copy I got from school has been in circulation since 1987, and there is an eerie sort of scratching where the eyes should be, making the picture look veeery sinister... I read your post, and glanced straight at it! Spooky.

I'll talk to my dad tomorrow. Thankfully my room is very neat and clean so I won't worry too much, and I'll blame it on some field mice for now.

Call in the pest man asap. Rodents can cause damage to electric wiring and squirrels will destroy insulating material at the drop of a hat. Then beg an old cat blanket from a friend with a smelly cat and cut it up into squares and leave them in the attic. The smell of a cat will usually deter the most determined of rats and mice.

Several of my neighbours have had squirrels in the loft, fortunately they havent invaded us, though they are getting to be a pest in garden (no crocuses any more, all dug up and eaten)
One neighbour did call in experts. Unfortunately the squirrels had built a nest in his loft and had babies, and he was not allowed by law to get rid of them. He couldnt block the hole in the soffit where they were getting in. I think they eventually went of their own accord.

Also they get into a hollow aluminium telegraph pole which provides phone lines for about 8 houses. The squirrels gnaw the wires, and one or other of us is always having BT round to repair the wiring.

scary story! you can make it to horror scenario!

anyway, that's maybe just rats or other kind of animals, don't worry..

Can't you open your loft hatch and lure them out Pied Piper style?

You could try one of these

It might not be rats, could be a family of Albanian squatters. (Don't ask, happened to a friend of mine, long story).
I would still try the pied piper thing though.

Oh dear, we had mice once..
Woke up one morning to see one standing in the middle of my bedroom floor just staring at me!
Was disturbing to say the least..

I dont think iv ever screamed so loud!
not because im scared of mice really, you just dont expect one to be in your bedroom at 4am do you!

Any mouse in my bedroom at 4 am would have to have a death wish what with two cats and a snake in there.

My cat brought a mouse into my bed once! While I was in it! some good suggestions though - you think my singing would lure the rat out....?

My dad's rung the ratman...

Altogether now...

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na







Ratman!!!

...May I borrow your snake just in case the little ###### decides to make another appearence?

Yes! That's what I shall sing to get the rat to follow me!

Lucky45 - did you ever find out what was in your loft? Reason I'm asking is I heard a lot of scrabbling and scratching in the night this week and when I was on the computer in the study I heard very loud noises from behind the wall between me and the kitchen. Perhaps we have a serious case of mice and I should call someone?

I agree with everyone who says get the pest control people in to deal with the noise.

Ours turned out to be squirrels. And pigeons in the soffit at the front of the house.

Whatever you do, don't set a cat on squirrels. The cat won't like it.

Get in pest control.

Their first choice of bait isn't warfarin, and as someone who was on moggie watch when she though her cat had be poisoned by mistake you don't want to annoy your feline loving neighbours by poisoning their cat!

Having said that you do want to get rid of the little ######s. A friend of mine has recently had his house squatted in by 95+ of the blighters so vermin are no laughing matter. They do untold damage to houses and spread disease.

Us - well, we have "furry vermin control inc" working at out home, the best pair of mousers you could care to own aka Plato and Gandalf. The vandals just don't stand a chance. Humane it is not. Nature's way most definately.

Thanks you two! Appointment made - 8.00 tomorrow morning. Noises between walls is definitely more worrying than just in the loft. Any poison I guess will be put down in the attic away from our feline visitors. We did have a rat hole outside once which was dealt with - hope they're not back again!

With any luck it just mice. I'm trying to picture if Gandalf would take on a Squirrel and who would come off worse. Gandalf is not a tiny cat. Now I know Squirrels are effectively Rats with decent PR agents, but I don't necessarily think Gandalf would loose...he's definately taken on a rat before and won.

We're always concered when cats show a real interest in the cupboad under the stairs, if they come in from outside, its the mouse route into the house, and both cats suddenly spend a lot of time there.

Hope so! (The mice I mean). The cats who visit our garden often just sit and look at the squirrels, which are usually just out of paw reach on a high fence by the big oak tree. I like the idea of squirrel PR They are such fun to watch.

I will now be scouting around the house looking for holes - recently did an early spring clean under the stairs so we're okay there - I think it might be behind the cupboard in the utility room (via gaps left by plumbing perhaps) - which backs on to the study.

Didn't find out exactly - the noise just suddenly went away... Now, several weeks later my dad's admitted it was probably a rat - because we live in between fields, and our cat has caught one before... While it was still going on, he maintained that it was mice though, to avoid scaring my sister and I.

I read on a website when I was still panicked, that if you hear scratching it could be mice or rats, but that mice move too lightly for you to hear the scurrying - if you can clearly hear something running, it's probably something heavier.

*i gives you a hug*

*shudders*

i'm morbidly phobic of rats and mice, can't even look at pictures of them ... i hope it gets sorted out!!

Apparently squirrels can turn really vicious if cornered eg in the corner of a loft - not to be tackled lightly - definitely a job for the professionals. I'm amazed at the tiny holes that mice can get through - last time I saw one it squeezed away under a door that I thought was flush to the floor.. ugh, nasty scrabbly nibbly things...

Oh dear - that doesn't sound like good news! The scrabbling was very loud All quiet so far this evening though as I sit here typing.




Thats very kind of you - thanks I had better not tell you we have had snakes in the summer in our garden too - trying to get into the pond!!!




What a wonderfully, vivid description Sue. Conjures up the image of a mouse perfectly! Oh well - up early tomorrow morning

Could it be glis glis - we have a lot of them around here?

Are those the ones that are protected? That would be a pain

I was about to ask is that a ballet step No joke - I have just found this article on-line - absolutely fascinating!

www.dailymail.co.uk

Actually the ballet step was not so daft an idea as the first glis glis were released in Tring park at the Arts Ed Ballet School! Thanks for this Susie - I will check with the Pest control man tomorrow. We do live in quite a nice, posh house so glis glis is a possibility - plus the noise was investigated before and came back - just like it says in the article.

Very glad you live in a nice house, but I don't think the glis glis are too fussy, our parish priest has some in the loft of the presbytery which is cheap and cheerful 1960's construction. He's tried some of the sonic pest deterrent devices - I don't know whether they have worked, but I've not heard anything else about the glis glis.

I liked the picture of them in the link - I haven't seen one before - they look very sweet, but presumably that's because I don't have any in our loft, (I hope!!)

Ha Ha! Have a vivid mental picture of a glis glis checking out the local estate agents' window displays to choose which houses to go and inhabit!! Thought I'd say something daft to mark my 600th post!!

(my house is safe then)

Could small birds get in under your eaves? That's what scratches around in my mum's attic (well, not in her attic as such but the space under the eaves, and you can hear it upstairs.........)

That's what we're hoping but there is the noise in the study downstairs to account for as well.

Waiting for the Pest Control now - he has just arrived.......I am so tired after being kept awake all night with littel feet running across the ceiling - will report back.

It's only MICE

Apparently - glis glis hang out in Surrey!

That reminds me one of my furry mouse destroyers was very interested in the garage yesterday. So I might leave the door to the music room into the garage open a bit this morning let him have an explore. Its raining so it will be more fun than out doors and I'll soon know if there's a problem.

Jo

Am just getting ready to go off to Devon. We are sorting out my mother-in-law's house after her death, and now that her cat has been rehoused the mice are thriving. I think they imagine the house is their's now, as we are only there every couple of weekends or so. I've watched them running around the kitchen and listened to them scratching and squeaking to each other at night. The neighbours put down some traps for them and that got rid of some. When we put traps down last time, the mice helped themselves to the cheese and carried it away, leaving the traps still set. My husband is now threatening to get an air gun to take pot shots at them .

Bait the traps with chocolates, something sticky and you far more likely to catch one. Had to do this one at a holiday cottage got a mouse in each trap every day. That was 10 mice in a week. Cadbury's heroes work very well.

Don't bother with humane traps they just move thre problem off to somebody else.

The neighbours suggested peanut butter; someone else suggested large lumps of cheese that the mice have to work hard to get off the trap. Shall try chocolate too - useful way of using up the remains of the Christmas chocolate. Think I shall conduct a controlled experiment, bait each trap with something different and see which bait is the one that catches most mice. Failing that, it'll be the air gun I think - husband is rather looking forward to that.

Poison is out as I don't want any possibility that the dog will get it, and I suspect the little horrors will just come back into the house if I use a humane trap.

Someone told me this morning that mice hate pepper and that will keep them away.

Pest Control Man reassured me that the mouse poison in not toxic to other animals as they would have to ingest an awful lot of it to cause any harm - same goes for us humans but I still had to sign a form which explains what was used and why. It does seem cruel to poison them but something has to be done or they just multiply. Might try the pepper though if they come back again or the chocolate.....

Thanks for all your support and sorry Lucky45 for hi-jacking your thread - hope you didn't mind!

Busy I would call this hijacking, more resurrecting. After all you also heard scratching noises, and you have a murine infestation.

When we had to get pest control in as we had too many mice for P + G to eat the bait boxes they used were cat and dog safe too. Warfarin however is not, and I recently was on moggie poison watch, so I can understand where jmhamilton is coming from over the poison perspective.

If you've got the stomach to deal with the corpses, then traps work well. Personally I have no problem with them what so ever.

Yes - Cadburys chocolate gets them every time. Last time we had a mouse I had only just set the trap in the cupboard and closed the door, when I heard it snap 5 minutes later. I felt a bit guilty when I opened the door as the mouse was twitching, but I think that was just a sort of spasm and he was really dead very quickly. I consoled myself that he had at least got to taste a bit of chocolate before he went...

Not sure that I have!






Couldn't resist!

Doesn't bother me, if it does count as hi-jacking... probably it doesn't. I'd forgotten about this - but I do hope it gets sorted out - it really stresses you out doesn't it? I don't even own this house and I was upset!