something alive in the attic

[mimmymimmy]

every night we hear scampering in the attic above our heads. we havent seen any evidence of mice in the rest of the house, and since there is no food in the attic, wonder what it could be. we dont think it is birds as we have had birds in the past nesting in there and this sounds different. do mice live in attics? if so, can they also get in the walls even though we have cavity wall insulation? how would they get from the attic to say the kitchen to get food? it sounds really loud like big mice or could it even be a squirrel ? has anyone else had noises in the attic from pests?

[roslyn251254]

Sounds like squirrels - we had them in a few years ago. They climb up the drainpipes and slip in under roof tiles. I know you're not supposed to but we put poison down and haven't had any since!!

[Hawkwalk]

I have mice in the attic. I can hear them at night and they do sound loud. I assume they go outside to eat as they have not appeared anywhere else in the house and there is nothing for them to eat up there. I also get birds but only in the spring, quite a little zoo going on up there!!

[buildersmate]

Ditto as Halkwalk. There is nothing for mine to eat up there either. They can climb the outside walls - on one occasion I spotted one doing it. They live up there and feed from the ground.

[chazza]

Agree with the above - we had mice once who made their nest in the insulation! However as we are joined to another house they could get to and fro between the two!

[tamborine]

they're cold.....winter........have a heart! They'll be gone in Spring.

[LoftyLottie]

Sounds just like mice. They come in for shelter in the winter. We get rats too!!!!! They come in off the fields and climb up our brick and flint walls. They sound like elephants. I can live with the little mice up their but I take great objection to the rats!!!

[LoftyLottie]

A wee mousey have come in to my kitchen cupboard where the pipes come through the wall and has been eating my dishwasher salt!! Mainly we get little brown country mice. Very pretty!!

[naomi24]

Could be squirrels. Our friends had squirrels in their loft and they were quite destructive.

[keyplus90]

Leave them alone as its very cold and windy ountside.

[naomi24]

^^ Fine - if you want to risk them chewing your electrical wiring.

[LoftyLottie]

To be honest Naomi we could never be rid of mice living where we do. We do obviously try our hardest with the rats but even the council's pest control people say it's well nigh impossible. Rats and mice come in off the fields and the farm is only a stone's throw away. At least the rats aren't those that live in town sewers but still not nice. The field mice come in for shelter in our loft at night and in 30 years we haven't had any problems with our wires. The cat brings them in live and unharmed. I think she thinks they are her babies. We have a great time chasing mice around to try and catch them humanely.

I honestly don't live in a mouse ridden house.

[naomi24]

I know what you mean, Lottie. I live in the country too with farms all around, so you can't avoid them completely, but I think you having a cat might help keep them out of your living areas. We've only had real problems with mice once, and then they got into the kitchen cupboards and munched anything they came across, they also chewed electrical wires, and they found their way up a radiator pipe and chomped straight through a brand new carpet. As much as I like animals - my garden is like a nature reserve - I wasn't amused to be sharing my house to that extent with the little critters! :o/

Incidentally, I had a cat that used to bring live mice in - and put them down to eat his dinner! :o)

[LoftyLottie]

But Naomi, the only mice we ever get in our living areas are the ones the cat brings in!! - apart from the little fella that came in to eat the dishwasher salt. I can cope with a few scratchings in the loft.

[naomi24]

Like I said, maybe they don't come into your living areas because you have a cat, Lottie. Your cat sounds about as hopeless as ours was at killing mice - but the mice don't know that, do they, so they probably steer clear! :o)

[katerich48]

A friend of mine had this problem and when they went up into the roof space - they found out it was bats.. They stood in their garden one night and counted 28 of them flying off into the sunset..

[Trotbot]

We had mice in our roof space. Trapping and humane release was not working, so we bought sonic noise generators. We hear an occasional burble, apparently the wee little chaps hear something more as they upped and offed. Sad and all that, but I don't feel that guilty, I hadn't asked them to stop by and ultimately they are a fire hazard

[Lil O'lady]

It cost my daghter £90 for the council ratcatcher (I'm sure has a £90 title but still a ratcatcher) to put up traps for the squillows in the attic. He got three of 'em with a huge steel trap. They haven't come back. They were gnawing at cables and stuff and they are only rats with fluffy tails no sympathy is pointless - they eat nesting chicks and anything else they can grab. They had heard lots of scrabbling about for a few weeks and the cat got VERY intrigued.
I knew someone got a squirrel in the kitchen - it got in the attic and came down the inside of the cavity walls, made a right mess before it was caught.
Birds would either be still, in the dark, or in springtime you'd hear nestlings squeaking when dinner arrives. Pigeons would make pigeon noises but you'd know it was them from the droppings and they need a largish exterior gap to get in.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

A squirrel somehow got into our house while it was unnocupied and tried to escape by gnawing at six upvc window frames.....V expensive.