To wonder what the hell is going on in the attic?

[MrsTawdry]

On Boxing Night I was in bed with DD2 who was asleep. I went to bed at about midnight, read on my phone for a bit then turned it off and lay down.

I heard a scratching noise which at first I thuoght was in the room...I shat myself but eventually fell asleep. Next night it happened again but I realised it was in the attic above my head and thought great....rats! Or mice or whatever.

Then I forgot to tell DH until I heard it again last night so he went up there and says there is no evidence of anything at all. No poo...no holes...no disturbance of the few bags of clothes up there...nothing is chewed.

I definitely heard something...quite loud too...so I'd imagine a rat or squirrel more than a mouse. What can it be? Why can't DH see the evidence?

Ghosts.

well they're bloody loud! Not even a WOOOOH noise!

Yeah man. It's ghosts.

Birds nesting in the gutter - that's what it was at ours. Or bats are noisy fuckers.

We had that and it was birds nesting.

Could it be bats? Although thinking about it now there would be poo if it was.

My mum has pipistrals (sp?) in her loft and hears them all shuffling along the eves to get out at dust, and then shuffle around getting back in again at dawn.

Where are you OP?

What birds would nest at this time of year UK?

Bats stink!!

Was he looking properly or just "Man Looking?"

Squirrel- get them dealt with or they'll chew your stuff to pieces!

When I heard scratching at night it turned out to be a borer beetle in the door frame.

Roosting and nesting birds can be incredibly loud. I used to have swifts nesting right above my bed when I was a teenager and I swear they had hobnailed boots, little buggers used to wake me up.

Maybe you should go and have a look. If it's roosting birds they probably won't be there in the daytime.

Leftie that was what I thought too! I might need to go up myself. I don't think it's birds in the gutter...they're above my head...in the ceiling...not outside.

Could it be something travelling through? Rodents can get through tiny holes (sorry). Mice poo a lot but easy to miss in low light, and I'm sure someone told me that rats tend to pick somewhere as a 'toilet zone' so might not be obvious.

Squirrels or Birds may be right under the eaves (and insulation) so not necessarily obvious. Last year we had a squirrel. Seriously loud.

Whatever it is you need to get it sorted asap as if it's a squirrel, it will tear up insulation to nest in and chew wires, which then becomes a fire hazard same with rats). If it is a squirrel and its a common grey squirrel it will need to be trapped and humanely killed.

It is not under the eaves...it's traveling or scratching on the floor of the attic...so right above my bedroom ceiling.

you could have a small hole where the barge boards join- that happened to us with birds- it wasn't big, but they got in!

We had rats last year you could hear it arriving at the same time every night. I tried squeaky noise plug in thing which didn't work so had to poison the beggars contrary to my vegetarian principles after they knawed their way into the main house via the kitchen eeurgh . The cat was bloody useless .

Mine was birds roosting thought I was going mad until mum stayed over one night and heard it too!

I just had a couple of bricks out by my drainpipe (have an old tall terrace) they were nicely settling into the rafters/drainpipe xx

Sounds like something bigger than mice, and would bats not be hibernating atm?

Sounds like rats.

Call in a pest control company before they multiply.

Yerp rats - we had the same phenomenon also with no poo/other obvious signs and was what it turned out to be! Keep a broom handy and next time you hear it whack the ceiling with the handle and listen for the escape-scurry.... Slightly gratifying to scare the sods and will eliminate ghost option? :) then pest control, obvs.....

Rats, birds. We used to get sounds of something heavy walking across the flat roof over my sisters bedroom. Worked out it was a cat after the birds.