A mouse or rat in my armchair? Or something else...

[wheredidIleavemystyle]

I'm alone in the house and it's very quiet.

A loud scratching noise started coming from the arm chair - or possibly behind it or in the wall.

When I moved towards it, it stopped.

I decided it must have been a noise coming from next door, so went back to what I was doing but now it's back and it's definitely in the chair.

The chair is old and can just go straight out. But what do do if a massive rat then runs around my front room?! Please tell me it's more likely to be a mouse. It's loud! As loud as a cat scratching on furniture.

I'm not doing anything about it till DP gets back! It's loud and I don't want to face a rat on my own! What if it bites when we move the chair? Or runs off. Or doesn't?!

What could it be? Mouse, rat or something else?

I suspect it's gnawing through bits inside the chair to make a nest.

Help!!

We've had a similar problem twice in the past. First time noises under the kitchen sink at the start of winter. We think it squeezed in through a gap where some foam stuff filled a gap by a pipe. Didn't ever see the mouse but emptied the cupboard, cleaned up its mess and blocked the gap. It didn't come back. Second time we heard load noises coming from my daughter's divan bed frame. We kept the door shut until our human trap arrived with the super speedy Amazon man and baited it with an apple slice and blob of Nutella. Next morning we had a cute little wood mouse in our see through trap. We took it back to the stables, it must've come home in a rug bag. Haven't had another since. Good luck xx

If you have a bucket, then you can leave it in the room overnight. Put some food in the bottom of it, and lean a stick or something up the side of it. The mouse will run up the stick, jump in the bucket to get the food, but then not be able to jump out again. You remove him/her to outside in the morning.

(If the bucket is on its side in the morning then you know you've got a rat.)

@wheredidIleavemystyle - don't keep us in suspense, what happened?!

lol
Sorry, it wasn't intended that way.

If its any help, at all, they will always do things like that . They are leaping for the light not the human.
<< Hopes its not made OP feel worse

My friend had mice in her sofa- same sounds … turn the chair upside down and if droppings is fall out then bobs your uncle

Sorry! It's been busy.

Creature 1, Humans 0 so far.

We took the chair out, but minus the creature. It's still in the house.

I more convinced it's a rat now, as it's so noisy. I've had mice before, years ago, and you would hardly have know they were there. This thing is a noisy fucker. It was in the larder last night making a hell of a racket, rustling about.

DP tried to trap it and catch it but it got past him. He's not sure on its size, it was too quick, and the light was dim, he hardly saw it.

I ordered humane traps on Amazon but they won't come till tomorrow so DP bought a couple. I think they're two small for a rat, so may be useless. But we're going to bait them and leave them out tonight, anyway.

DP was planning to go through everything while I was at work today, trying to work out where it's hiding / got in. But he's not feeling well today so that's on hold.

If we can't catch it ourselves in the next couple of days, we're going to have to get the rat catcher round I reckon. I'm convinced it's breeding.

I’ve got a rat in my garden so I called the council pest control. It was £80 but if it’s rats in your house it’s free.

OMG op - how stressful!

Whereabouts are you OP? Could it be a glis glis?

Update - it was a rat!! I knew it was by the time we caught it, it was such a noisy fucker. Not a giant rat thank fuck, but much bigger than a mouse.

The mouse traps were useless, probably as too small but this bigger one off Amazon worked. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08H552SK5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

DH is bravely driving with it in the car, very far away to get rid of it. I mean, I know it's in a trap so it's not that much of a deal, but I'm not sure I'd like to do it!

The bait, in case anyone was wondering, was a chocolate biscuit and peanut butter.

OMG! I was convinced it was just a little field mouse or something. How terrifying! Did you work out how it got in?

😳 yikes!

My mum had a stairmaster exercising machine sitting unused for ages in her living room. One January she decided to start exercising again, got on the machine and a humongous rat came running out. It had been living in the machine, eating the dog's food and water as it was always left out.

It had been living in the machine, eating the dog's food and water as it was always left out.

And I had just convinced myself that there couldn't be any rats hiding in our house because the dogs would alert me .....
But then again, their bowls are licked clean within seconds of food being put in there so nothing for any intruders.