Is there something living on our attic?

andre_xs

Dear All,
since a couple of weeks, we hear noises in the morning (usually between 5am and 10am) which sound like gnawing sounds. From the sound it sounds larger than a mouse. The attic is mostly boarded, and we have a lot of stuff up there, partly in cardboard boxes, partly in plastic containers. Plus wood (e.g. old bedframe, shelves,...).

So today I was up there trying to find any evidence of an animal. I removed all boxes, and some floorboards from the area where it sounds it's coming from. But I found nothing. Everything is fine, no signs of gnawing, no droppings, etc. Our attic is quite stuffed, so I didn't remove everything and look everywhere, and I didn't lift a lot of floorboards (but between floorboards and ceiling is rockwool anyway).

At this stage, I just want to know whether there is something up there. So I thought I might just putting something "to eat" up there and see whether someone had a snack
 If so, then we could look into how to get rid of it. But what would be a good snack? Cheese? Something sugary (e.g. a chocolate / protein bar)? We're vegetarian, so we don't have meat in the house.

We have a terrassed house, and the gnawing comes roughly from the area of the joint wall. Could it be that it's actually on the neighbour's side? (I'll ask them next time I see them). It also comes more from the middle of the house, not really from the eaves (that would have been another suspicion, that it lives in the eaves / behind the fascia boards).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,

Andre 

CliveOfIndia

Probably the simplest is to stick a couple of mouse-traps up there, see if you catch anything.  They're not expensive to buy, and that should at least tell you one way or another whether it is mice.  Bait them with peanut butter (yes, seriously!).  It's always worked well for me, mice seem to love it.

If you do catch a mouse, you'll probably need to reset the trap a few times, often there'll be more than one of them living up there.

JGB1955

If you've set a humane trap you'll have to drive several miles before releasing the little bu**er!

subjecttocontract

Could be a squirrel.....cage traps are available.

ashe

Birds in the soffits?

FreeBear

ashe said:

Birds in the soffits?

That will be the most likely culprit. Rats & mice are generally attracted to sources of food, and there isn't normally anything in a loft that they would eat.

Used to have starlings nesting in my soffits, and they do sound very much like rodents, but the giveaway is when they pop out for a fly around.

andre_xs

Thanks to everyone. I'll double check the soffits as well, but I don't think it is. The sound comes very much from the centre of the house, not the outside walls. Also, I'm a lot in the garden, I would have noticed something (I guess).

I've put some bait up there (among other things, peanut butter ), just to see if someone is eating it, until we get a cage trap.

andre_xs

What I was wondering: What is the likelihood that something is living in the ceiling, so above the ceiling-plasterboard of the upstairs bedroom and below the attic floorboards? There's just rockwool, so I would think not very inviting, but who knows... The floorboards are not laid very well and not everywhere, so there are ways to get under them.

fletcher1985

i have a cat and we would be in bed and he would lay on me and always be looking up in the air so i new something was going on up in my loft. i put one of my cctv cameras up there and it was two rats one was like the size of a small cat, i put a trap up there but they were to clever so had to use poison. all went quiet for months then it started again i managed to catch one in the humane trap but i completley for the trap was there. it was not a great sight when i found it. 

twopenny

I spent ages worried about a sound like air blowing across the top of a pipe. Always in the evening when it was quiet of course. Occasionally afternoon or morning.
Convinced it was my heating going wrong.
Turned out to be neighbours plumbing which she wouldn't fix. And we are only linked by two garages!

Ditto last house neighbours ballcock in the header tank gave me sleepless nights.

I get scratching sounds and thumps from birds landing on the roof scratching at moss for insects or water in the gutter when it's dry weather.
All sorts if you can't identify give your imagination free rein.

Letsgetmoving

Our last house was a semi detached and I used to wake up to a scratching noise, it was very creepy. It turned out it was next door’s dog scratching on the tiled walls in the kitchen and the sound travelled up the walls!