Something in the Attic - How do I evict it?

pealy

Something's scratching around in my attic! I don't know what it is but I'd really prefer it to move on. I can't see any evidence of it, probably because the attic is boarded and it's creeping around underneath. If I let my imagination run riot then I'm convinced it's a colony of huge spiders but I suspect (and hope) it's something much more mundane. It's probably a coincidence but a squirrel recently discovered a good supply of peanuts in our bird feeders (now withdrawn) could it have taken up residence close to the food supply?

Any bright ideas? I don't mind using fatal force but I'd prefer to do something more humane and preferably target the intruder rather than using napalm to destroy everything in range.

safesound

My boyfriend is a pest control technician and he says the three most common animals to cause "scratchy" noises in attics are rats(!), squirrels and birds/bats. If you hear it in the day then we can rule out the bats (which is good because they're protected and it would cost money to get them professionally removed).
The first thing you need to do is identify where its getting in. Have you got ivy growing up the outside of your house? Or maybe a large tree that overhangs the roof?
If so then you need to cut it back as thats how they're getting in. Once thats done you can either poison the attic, or check every nook and cranny (and you have to be thorough to make sure it isnt gonna get stuck up there) then close up any holes in the eves/soffits or anywhere you can see light so the little beggars cant get back in.
Alternatively you could just call your local council and tell them you have a rat in your attic. They will come and lay some poison for you free of charge.
It depends on how you want to play it/what you can live with I suppose.

LilacLillie

safesound, silly question but...................... can you ask your boyfriend what a Rat Poo looks like please? And if one walked up and down on my BED (Arhhhhhhh) would I find evidence of more than 1 poo? Gone over the place with a fine tooth comb and only found what looks like one in my bed..................I was in it at the time
LL

aussielle

picture here

LilacLillie

LOL
Where did you find that? The one I found looked the same but was lighter brown in colour (better European diet?).
Because it was in my bed (at the same time as me!), I'm hoping it was more a squirrel poo............. that seems more acceptable that a rat one.
I bought it home with me and took it to environmental health dept: They said if I only found the one (and it wasn't for lack of looking), it was probably a rat that came in had a look around and scarpered. Also because it was only one dropping they said it wasn't worth sending it off to have it analysed.
I have left Rat poision down all over the place, had people in to look for anywhere it may be nesting (all had a great giggle over it, thinking I'm crazy), and am really nervous what I'll find when I go back.
Off to find a squirrel poo now...................
LL

robowen

At our last house, we left a photo of the M-I-Law and a quietly playing Val Doonican record next to the entry point.

Never saw the little buggers again ! :rotfl:


but seriously, be careful with the rat poison.
If you do manage to kill a rat with poison, you'll have to go looking for it after it has died. The body of the rat will rot, and the smell will be awful ! :eek:

You wouldn't want that smell in the loft would you ? :think:

rob

katiepops_2

I feel sick .... I have a major phobia about those things that start with the letter R ... and the letter M ones too.

How would they get up in a loft anyway?? I'm having a mild panic attack at the thought.

We have birds in our roof - I have an office up on our third floor in the apex of the roof, and I can hear them in the part of the loft that's behind the wall. As far as I know there's no way in there from the house, but I can see from the window that there is a little hole just under the roof where they are getting in. Funnily enough though I haven't heard them for a couple of weeks, perhaps they've gone elsewhere now. My next door neighbour has also got a tiny hole just under her roof, and I can see the birdies flying in and out (we've got three storeys, she's got two ... so I look down onto her roof).

Honestly, if I thought there was an R or an M anywhere in my house I would leave the house screaming and never come back. My parents had an infestation of R's last year that burrowed through the concrete around a manhole which was under their kitchen (extension) floor and then got up into the kitchen through the small gap where the washing machine hose/water pipes were. I couldn't go round for months after that ... why why why can't someone invent something to get rid of them all for good!

Kate

Nile

As posted earlier, bats are a protected species and you cannot disturb them.......but I think you can discount bats. Bat poo is tiny sausage shaped droppings which you tend to find near walls or actually stuck onto the wall surface. I've done bat surveys and the survey work includes looking for bat droppings as evidence of a roost.

We had a mouse or mice in our loft when we moved into our house years ago. It was a brand new build, so we think it/they moved in just before the roof was finished.

We heard them scratching/moving around in the early hours of the morning........around 2 o'clock ish.

We got the council pest officer (whatever his title is) in. He put boxes of poison bait in the loft...........we've had no more mice since.

The council pest officer will be your cheaper option (if they charge at all) than looking in the yellow pages and getting a pest control company to do the job.;)

pealy

Thanks for the great response SafeSound, but there's the dilemma, if I use poison then I could end up with an attic full of rotting animal corpses. There's no way I can check every nook & cranny, the house is 200 years old and the walls are over a foot thick with holes & cavities all over the place.

I have loads of creepers and a fairly big hole in the roof eaves (excuse spelling) so I might lie in wait and see if anything comes out.. If it's the squirrel then I should be able to block up the hole while he's knawing through my bird feeder. If it's rats then I'm calling the council..

scheming_gypsy

if it's squirrels then use one of those old football rattles. It worked well enough on Coronation Street

robowen

pealy wrote:

so I might lie in wait and see if anything comes out....

Why not get one of those little cameras you see on the boot sales.?

You could set it up where you think they might be coming in. Move it somewhere else if you get no luck.

They cost about £35 and run off a small square battery. Sends pictures back to your pc or your video recorder. They are wireless too, so no messing with cables.

rob