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AIBU?

To feel scared that there is something huge and scary up in the loft

56 replies

Shelly32 · 03/04/2013 20:51

Since Christmas I've heard loud scrabbling at night over our bedroom. DH thought it may have been a bird. I didn't and convinced him to put a mouse and rat trap up there. Today while near the loft, whatever is up there loudly banged/scrabbled/trampled over the loft hatch. DH came hoe and checked the traps. Both have been set off and emptied of chocolate (no jokes about the Easter bunny being up there please) and I'm thinking that there has to be something pretty huge up there to set off a rat trap and not get caught in it. Should I get the exterminators in or is that a no brainer...

OP posts:

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Shelly32 · 04/04/2013 20:40

Thank you for all the good advice!!

OP posts:

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Shelly32 · 04/04/2013 10:41

Haha! Some of these posts have made me laugh!!
Snowme I'm worried that if there is a big rat/squirrel up there, it'll do more damage to the cat than the other way round. Vet bills on top of Rentakill bills don't sound too attractive!
Carpevinum Seen lots of the attic themed horrors and yup, they've been running through my mind! Re; traps, I never thought about severed tails/paws...
DH is going for a proper look around this evening to see if he can find any droppings ...fingers crossed they are not Christopher Eccleston sized!!

OP posts:

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valiumredhead · 04/04/2013 10:39

It'll be a rat or a mouse - they both sound like the roof is falling in they make SO much noise. Traps and poison is the way to go, at least 5 traps and lots of poison.

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BatmanLovesVodkaAndCherryade · 04/04/2013 10:03

We had rats at school, noisy little sods in the walls of my classroom They were fed warfarin and oozed to death. Had to clear their leaky bodies away every morning before school for about a week

Rofling at CarpeVinum's 'Walking Deaf'...

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alarkthatcouldpray · 04/04/2013 09:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BadgersNadgers · 04/04/2013 08:57

OP has gone quiet. Do you think the attic zombies got her in the night?

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cherrycarpet · 04/04/2013 08:40

Poor you. I'm afraid to say it could be rats. We have just moved out of a rented house and it had rats living in the dormer attic. We caught 15 in five months - horrendous. They were huge and made an unbelievable amount of noise - particularly at night. Running, jumping and gnawing. We also found that they'd started chewing through some electric wires so apart from health concerns they can be a fire hazard too!

I would contact pest control via the council and get them to come and have a look asap. If it is rats you need to get rid of them asap before they become an established colony. They are very clever creatures and we couldn't find out where they were getting in/out of attic. Even had the rat man stumped! Needless to say it caused a lot of stress and we're glad to have moved on from that place. Good luck with sorting it out.

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MadBraLady · 04/04/2013 08:32

Squirrels, I bet.

Don't try and go up there yourself, they are absolute little psychopaths. Made me see trips to the park in a whole new light.

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kungfupannda · 04/04/2013 08:28

It's most likely to be mice or rats. They sound far bigger and noisier than you'd expect. We get woodmice in during the winter and they are spectacularly loud. I used to hear something crashing about above the airing cupboard when I was at my desk in the evening - I was convinced a bird had got in somehow. I spoke to the neighbours who used to live in our house and they confirmed it was just the woodmice - they said they used to be sure it was something much bigger, but every time they put poison down, it turned out to be mice and then the noise stopped.

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ScarletLady02 · 04/04/2013 08:22

When we first moved into our house, we would be lying in bed at night and hear this creepy death rattle moaning sound from the loft....for months it freaked the shit out of us. We could only hear it when in the bedroom in the middle of the night. We tried to open the loft only to find it had been nailed shut...FROM THE INSIDE. If anyone has seen Rec/Quarantine, we had visions of some monsters or zombies or whatever up there.

It wasn't until one day when DH was in the garden we discovered that the noise was the old man next door....blowing his nose

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Naysa · 04/04/2013 08:06

We have mice. They often steal the bait out traps without them going off. This includes cheese and peanut butter covered chocolate

We tried humane traps but they never went in them so now we have little nippers and bait boxes. They got in when we had our cavity wall insulation done and they make one hell of a racket.

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ZacharyQuack · 04/04/2013 05:33

Sheep?

Pop a bale of hay up there just in case.

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alwayslateforwork · 04/04/2013 05:20

We have squirrels.

Don't be too sure they can't get through fecking walls. Last hallowe'en (I kid you not) I was sitting watching the box at about 10 pm when suddenly dd2 did 'the scream' face and the silent horror point over my shoulder.

Fecker squirrel was sitting on the back of the armchair.

Last year I made dh cut a hole in the wall to find them. He found 5. Eventually. The first hole proved fruitless so I made him cut a second one. I would have carried out and cut the whole fecking house apart, so adamant was I they were to be evicted.

They launched out like demons and we spent about an hour shrieking and trying to chase them out the back door whilst they climbed everywhere. Dh kept saying 'my rabies jab is up to date'.

I know they are back. Dh was carpet cleaning upstairs last weekend and I heard the earthquake as they roused from their nice comfy under the floorboard space (overhead) as he passed over. I hear them in the bedroom wall. Bastards.

You know I'm off to buy mothballs.

Pest control say they won't come out if we don't know how they are getting in. We libe in a four storey townhouse on the side of a mountain. I have no fricking clue where they are getting in. Nor do I have a four storey ladder to investigate the roof.

I'm selling the house instead. I may have to repair the wall...

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bootsycollins · 04/04/2013 05:11

I reckon it's that puppet on a bike from the Saw film.

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ChairmanWow · 04/04/2013 04:59

Please not Julian Assange. You'd need a huuuuge trap just to fit his ego .

at SarahandFuck (great name too). I'd love to have Christopher Eccleston living in my loft. I'd let him in my hatch at night

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MsBella · 04/04/2013 02:26

CarpeVinum!!! I hate rats with a passion, the other day I found myself saying 'why are they allowed to sell these??!' In the pet shop. That is the most horrible story.. ugh!!!

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MsBella · 04/04/2013 02:22

I had rats in mine and it literally sounded like a massive creature was JUMPING around and running from one side to another, it is horrible I know. They were getting in up the wysteria (plants growing up front of house) it all stopped when that got chopped down. Anyway rats and mice are always eating the food and somehow not getting trapped, its nothing to worry about but id try looking into other ways of getting rid of them

By the way they CAN'T get to you through the walls, I know its ridiculous of me to say but oh my god I had these crazy fears of them just dropping through the ceiling when I had them in the attic..!

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CarpeVinum · 04/04/2013 02:08

have you seen paranormal activity?

DH claims that when the rat volleyball with a half brick first started I sat bolt upright in bed and declared there was a zombie in the attic.

I put it down to watching The Walking Deaf last thing before bed and DH being a selfish git by not watching with me so I know when it is safe to come put from behind the TV watching cushion.

A word of warning about shoving a cat up there. It might not want to come back down. And then you have to go up there to get it and deal with horrors like brushing against MASSIVE spider webs, muttering darkly when DH shouts up "watch ut for the zombie" the day after the finale when there was a fucking SWARM of zombies and you still aren't quite back to normal yet.

When I am queen attics will be abolished.

As will rats, spiders' webs, disobediant cats and the showing of zombie programmes after lunchtime.

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somedayma · 04/04/2013 01:53

have you seen paranormal activity? it might be a great big demonic creature with claws

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Snowme · 04/04/2013 01:19

Chuck a cat up there overnight.

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BuntyPenfold · 03/04/2013 23:54

Could be Julian Assange?
or squirrels maybe.

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BadgersNadgers · 03/04/2013 23:41

How many children have you got! Can you account for them all?

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DeepPurple · 03/04/2013 23:41

DH not DH'S! Only the one!

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DeepPurple · 03/04/2013 23:41

We have had mice before and not heard anything until the water pipe was eaten through!

We currently have birds in the chimney and the are seriously noisy. DH'S forgot to put netting over the (unused) chimney after last year.

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PoppyWearer · 03/04/2013 23:36

We had mice and the little bastards kept us awake night after night, I was convinced they were rats.

They cost us a fortune to kill get rid of and it took about six visits from the pest control company. it's ok we don't need a holiday, really [bitter emoticon]

The pest control chap said we had damage in the loft from a previous squirrel infestation (before we bought the place) and showed me a nasty scar he had from a squirrel attack. He said that squirrels are his worst job and cause the most damage.

Bearing in mind that he had just also destroyed a mahoosive amd scary wasp nest in our loft.

OP, I really hope it's not a squirrel!! Do you have a cat you can send up? For some reason our lazy-arse cat loves going up in our loft probably the smell of mice.