To be worried something is living in my roof?

[Zintox]

Last night I went out and when I came back DH said he'd heard something scrabbling about in the ceiling above our living room.
Part of our living room has a flat roof so I said it was probably a cat or birds on the roof.

He checked this morning and the snow was pristine, plus I'm in the house alone now and I just heard scrabbling in the kitchen ceiling.

Could something be living in there? Or might it be snow melting? I'm slightly freaked out that we might have rats or squirrels in the ceiling space.

Scratching in the ceiling usually signifies rats

More likely to be mice I'd have thought.

Can you put some traps in the loft?

There are lots of animals coming in from the cold atm.

It's not the loft. Downstairs sticks out more than upstairs so it's the space above the downstairs ceiling. No access to put traps in.

I don't even know how anything would get in there.

Was hoping you'd tell me it's just everything melting and defrosting.

Rats or squirrels would be the most likely. Can you get into the space at all to check for signs of them and gaps they could be getting through? You really don’t want them gnawing through your electrics.

We can't get into it at all as far as I know. Oh no. It's newly extended so there shouldn't be any holes for animals to get in. I don't know what to do now.

Rats need very little space/holes to get in. I would get advice from pest control at your local council they are very knowledgable and very good

The worst thing is if they die and the smell comes into the house. Don't put poison down or anything!

If it is animals seeking shelter, as soon as the weather warns up they'll be gone if you haven't had them previously.

Teeny mice sound like fucking 20 stone clog dancers when they’re in roof spaces or attics.

We had similar problem, OP, called council as thought it was rats but it was squirrels. They sounded like a herd of elephants running around. Chap who came said they can get in through a gap approx an inch squared. Good luck with sorting it.

Maybe you should check it's not a family of Peruvian panpipe buskers before they die of asbestos poisoning.

(This Country joke)

I echo the advice about not putting anything down that will kill.

I had a mouse problem once in a ceiling space which we had access to, a pest company put poison down. JFC the smell. There is a chance they'll leave as the weather warms up. Also, just because an extension is new, doesn't mean there hasn't been some amount of gaps left for ventilation - I was watching a neighbour's house a couple of weeks ago and could see sparrows coming and going from a tiny hole in the side wall.

Could be squirrels.

They've been known to chew holes in soffit boards and the like to gain access

We had mice that ran all around the house under the floorboards upstairs. They really do as a pp said, sound like they’ve got hobnail boots on when they run across the ceiling.

Colinsveryjolly loves this

Oh arse. Probably is squirrels then. We have two in the garden regularly.
Hopefully they will move out now it’s warming up.

If it was newly done could they have left one of the builders in there?

We've been hearing lots of banging from upstairs & I found some droppings in the living room.

I put 2 humane traps down last week & mouse number 8 was waiting for me when I got home today!!

Can't believe the noise they make & can't wait until they've all gone!!!

We had squirrels in our roof space. The noise from them running around early in the morning was incredible. Might sound strange but we played really, really loud music in an attempt to banish them. It worked! 😂

It could be glis glis, they can cause a lot of damage.

Willow yes I turned round sometimes to find a mouse sat there staring at me. I also realised that the little sods were having the dog’s dried food away

Get a pest control expert to take a look, OP. Best case scenario is he doesn't find anything and it's a waste of a call-out fee!

My friend heard scrabbling but ignored it. Came back from a 3 week honeymoon to a dark flat full of flies and a truly horrific stench. Eventually it turned out the scrabbling had been a giant rat that had chewed through the electricity cable, killed itself, and rotted under the floorboards. Cost a fortune to fix the electrics and clean it all out. If she'd just called rentokil when she first heard it, it might have been avoided!

Fingers crossed you find absolutely nothing up there.

Niceand

Granny all the builders definitely went home.

Our cat keeps staring at the ceiling. Maybe I should drill a hole and shove him up there lol

If it's squirrels it doesn't take long for a smell of urine to be noticeable in the space. Birds may also get in they are generally less noisy though.