What could be in my attic?

[Thunderface]

My dds (young teens) woke up an hour ago to loud noises in the attic above their room. I went in and listened. We've had mice in the past but this sounds much bigger. Please don't say it's a rat. (It's probably a rat).
They came to sleep in my room but we couldn't settle.
My DH is away with work for the first time since the pandemic started. Before that he was away regularly for weeks at a time and I was fine with it.
Now I'm feeling rattled. Dds and I have decamped to the living room. They are dozing but I'm on edge.

Not sure it matters what they are (unless bats, or owls, in which case I'd be getting cameras up there). We used to live in a v old thatched house and would get hob nailed booted critters up there at least 3/4 times a year. Always arrived the day after the combines had been in the fields and then again whenever they felt like it. In the end, the pest control guy just sold us a huge, huge tub of pellets to chuck around in the attic whenever they appeared again. You get used to it.

Seagulls or crows on the roof,
We always have this and the first time I heard it I nearly shat myself, it really does sound someone walking about up there. I went out and checked and lo and behold it was 2 noisy seagulls stamping about on top of the roof

Rats sound like loud scuttling, and they party mainly in the early hours, like ravers.

Mice can be disproportionately loud. I have had them loads and its a strange sound. Got them in the loft and annoyingly my bathroom cupboard at the moment as its got colder. Goodness knows what my cat is actually doing just laying there, no help.
Rats are more scratchy I find. Hope its not rats op. My friend is having a hard time getting rid of them.
Could be squirrels as they are very loud.
So 3 options.

I'd be scared to go up too up too but id have to because I couldn't sleep another night not knowing.
You could get a a few traps of various sizes and see what happens. Apparently they don't live together so you won't have mice and rats or squirrels its one or the other.

@Justcannotbearsed

Squirrels. Friend had them, he had to get a humane trap from a charity and release them miles away or they come back.

Or a bird getting in through skylight.

You could ge5 local pest control out….

You can't release grey squirrels into the wild any more (since Dec 2019). They have to be destroyed as you also aren't allowed to keep them in captivity.

@fudgecat

It's Pennywise the clown

We have had a load of mice coming in to find shelter for winter; our terrier just looked at them running about!
whatever it is be careful as they can cause a lot of damage to the property. best bet is get out a pest control

[quote DoncasterHombre]www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/10/experience-a-stranger-secretly-lived-in-my-home[/quote]
Someone I know is convinced they have a phrogger in their house.
I'm sure it's just some very heavy footed squirrels or birds though OP!

For me, it was squirrels. After a few days of what appeared to be illegal raves being held in the loft, I didn't go looking - just called pest control out.

@Eenymeanyminey

It's probably squirrels. Hefty little buggers.

Agree with this. We had the same. I was convinced it was rats. It was squirrels. We had someone in to squirrel proof it.

@Furzebush

I have possums that party on my roof at night I swear they sound like a fully grown man stomping around. The creepiest intruders were rats that got into our house when I was a child. You could hear them scurrying under the floorboards.

I’m in Australia so obviously this doesn’t apply in the UK (the possum part, not the rat part).

I would also vote for squirrels, they are an absolute menace.

As a PP says if you trap them you must kill them humanely as it is an offence to release them. Get pest control in.

Starlings.

Get a cat.

1. The presence of a cat is supposed to deter a lot of the creatures mentioned from moving in.
2. Any unidentified noises can be attributed to the cat, which makes them less scary in the middle of the night.

We have cats! We had mice when we lived here first but the cats soon sorted that problem and we've had none for years.
That's why I think it must be something else.

When we had the squirrel visiting our loft, we had two cats! Tried popping the better hunter up there, no joy.

I shouldn’t laugh but a few years my dad had to go round to my granny’s because loads of local cats had started a fight club in her attic. She was being terrorised and I have never stopped laughing at the thought of it

Hopefully it’s something less exciting in yours!

We have starlings in ours all the time and they sound like a herd of elephants

My friend came over and he had a good look around. No sign of rats, bats, birds or mice.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens tonight.

Either a squirrel or a rat, it doesn't really matter. You need it gone. I'd call in a pest control company.

Might be a crow. They are noisy wee bastards, as we found out last year when one found a secret route into our house... 🤦🏻‍♀️

We had stoats living in the walls one year. They got in through a broken air brick. It sounded like they were wearing hobnailed boots when they ran around the walls and the attic. But they did get rid of the mice.

Our pest control man said that the mice would be going out through the day to eat and then coming back in to keep warm on a night. When we had squirrels that's what they would do. We never really heard squirrels during the day - or through the night but they'd always wake up as it was getting light and start running across the attic. With mice we hear them at various times during the night. Are you able to see if there are any obvious entry holes outside which you could block?

Put flour down to see where the footprints come in?

Put flour down to see where the footprints come in?

I thought people usually used talcum powder for that. They might like to eat the flour!