Mice or rats? Help

[Rainy318]

Hi

For three months now I've been hearing noises under my floorboards. It's mainly at night and can be very very loud. I can't find any traces of mice or rats inside the house but the noises under the floorboards are torturing me. Some people are saying it's pipes but i don't believe it is as happens mainly at night and it's like something is scuttering from one side to the other. Can someone please offer me some advice of what it could be and how i can deal with it please. Thank you

Does it smell? Rats have a very distinct whiff.

Mice stink.
Mouse droppings are tiny. Rats less so.

Rats are noisier than mice

Get some traditional spring mouse traps. Bait then with peanut butter or chocolate. We usually put ours in the attic as that’s where we hear the noise. I think the mice try to get inside st this time of year as it is getting cold. It’s best to try to catch the mice quickly before they breed. You can call in a pest control company too but we’ve always got rid of them ourselves. We usually catch too but then hear nothing else.

I would buy one of the rodent plugs they work brilliantly, whatever it is will soon be gone , rats or mice.

Rats sound much more obvious than mice. First have a good look about for where they may have got in. Check every tiny gap around pipes, airbricks etc. If you find it see if it looks used as a through way. If yes and very clear and clean then it may be rats as they like a clear entrance. The council will usually deal with that for you free if charge. However, if mice are suspected it is a bit more tricky to get to them under the floor. The pest controller may have some suggestions for you. If you have cavity walls, you may find they will come surfaceside in the loft so will be easier to trap.

Really difficult to know unless they are in your home. If you think they are the best thing is to use the snap traps or sticky glue traps with either peanut butter as already suggested or chocolate. If you live in a council property see what your local council offers you might still have to pay. Private pest control companies can be very costly, so shop around.

Scuttering sounds are def nice or rats. I had mice in the floorboards and would hear scratching and scuttering. Get pest control over asap, they can identify where they are getting in.

It could be either tbh. Don't underestimate the noise a mouse can make. Can you get into the voids below the floorboards to put bait down? If so, revisiting the bait after a night of activity will tell you which it is fairly definitively. Rats will hoard food and take it back to wherever they're nesting. If you put down a pellet-based bait, they'll go to and fro all night until they've socked it all away. Mice won't do that, but they'll cover the bait up to keep it safe for later, so you'll find it all in a big pile more or less where you left it, with loads of shredded odds and sods piled up over it. Most councils will come out free of charge to clear rats, but mice are your own responsibility. Sympathies! It's grim hearing the patter of tiny feet running around above your head all evening.

It’s hard to say categorically from the information you’ve shared - until you actually catch one of the culprits. Have you heard any chewing? Rats tend to nibble/chew wood. Also, if you do catch sight of any droppings that would help - rats are more like large pellets whereas mice tend to leave lots of smaller little droppings. Sorry you’re going through this OP - it’s not nice!

Thank you for your replies. I have had the council pest control out three times and they can't do anything more because they can't see any evidence of them inside the house. I also rang pest control companies and they are saying they won't go under the floor boards. I have covered any holes we have found and can't find anywhere they could be getting in. I will have to try get traps for under the floor boards see if that will do anything. Thank you

Thank you for your reply. I can't hear any chewing or scratching but to be honest i haven't slept in my bedroom this started happening as I'm too afraid, so from down stairs i can just hear it scuttering from one side of the room to the other under the floor boards but sometimes during the night I'm being woke with a loud bang like it's jumping from something. I've bought traps to put under the floorboards and poison has been put in the attic but i don't know what I'm dealing with and it's been going on 3 months now it's really freaking me out.

Thank you for your reply. The council have been put three times and they said they can't do anything else but put poison down and i have rang private pest control companies and they won't do anything for under floor boards. I am at my wits end i have no idea what I'm dealing with and have don't know how to solve this problem as can't seem to get help as i haven't seen what it is. It's torture.

I feel for you - I felt like I was going mad when this was happening in my house. The exterminator couldn't find evidence of mice but I could hear them in the ceiling!

He thought they had probably been disturbed by building work in a house further down the terrace and were looking for somewhere else to live. We had terriers so probably not their number one choice.

We put poison in places like the boiler cupboard and meter cupboards and made sure there wasn't any food they could get at.

If the mice are travelling up the terrace looking for a home you want to make sure you're as inhospitable as possible. No food whatsoever accessible to them, even to the extent of a few crumbs in a good wrapper. Have you got a friend willing to lend you a cat or a dog, ideally a small terrier, for a couple of days? The mice will be able to smell them long in the house long before you can.

An old building across from my house recently started getting renovated, i think they could have came from there. For now it's only in the floorboards, there is no evidence in the house so no one will help me, some think I'm imagining it lol. There has been no food upstairs and have been cleaning messes. I have bought the plug ins and they didn't work either. It's day and not now so I'm thinking the worst and that I've got a infestation of rats running through my floorboards, it's awful.

rats take food away and eat in hiding.
mice just nibble there and then.
I agree to putting snap traps down. looks horrific, but is the most humane way to kill them. smear on peanut butter/nutella/cream cheese, so that they can't take it and run.

I can't find anywhere they are getting food from. My bin has a lid, there has been no food upstairs and can't find any evidence of then being in the kitchen. Could they be getting in there without me knowing or should i see evidence? All food is stored in cupboards and there doesn't seem to be any holes in them. Could they be getting food somewhere else and bringing it into my house? I don't even know how they are getting in, outside my house seems secure but next door has a hole in theirs, could it be getting in there and coming into mine. It's getting worse and more frequent as time goes on 😥😥

A pest controller once told me a mouse can live for weeks on the contents of your toaster crumb tray. You'd be surprised where they can find sustenance!

I live in a terrace and the whole row had mice at one point. They were getting in through a hole under next door's doorstep into the floor space then using that to access all 4 houses through tiny holes like where the radiator pipes enter the wall. Talk to your neighbours, the mice might be chowing down in their house, in which case the only way you'll catch them is with traps and poison in their house. You could even offer to share cost of an exterminator since you'll benefit from it too.

Pull the baseboards off your kitchen units and look underneath with a torch. Also look in any kitchen cupboards that have holes cut in, ie the sink unit. If you have a slot-in cooker pull that out and look at the back of it. Pull every appliance out and look for poos. Look up on google what mice and rat poo looks like and what the size is. If they are getting in there WILL be poos, they basically shit every 2 minutes. Mice smell like damp cardboard and rats like sour ginger biscuits. You can also run a test by putting a bag of flour or sugar on the floor and seeing if it has been nibbled the next day.

If they are only living under your floorboards but you find no evidence of poos in your house, they must be getting food from nearby, which means they are coming outside at night, probably to a compost heap or bins in the area. Therefore you can trap them with traps out of doors. Little Nipper for mice and the bigger version for rats are the best and most humane. Don't use glue traps unless you enjoy drowning or stamping to death trapped rodents. Poison works but they can due under the floor and will stink. Nipper traps - buy about ten and spread them around. They aren't expensive compared to pest control. Bait with chocolate. Check every day.

I have asked one neighbour, they have said they have heard nothing in their house but thought maybe something has been under their decking. I'm a bit of a loner and wouldn't really feel comfortable asking the other neighbours in fear they would judge me. I'm stuck for what i can do now hopefully putting traps under the floor boards will help me

Whatever it is sounds its so loud, like the size of a cat. Right now it's bashing around upstairs making me jump every 10 seconds. I definitely think it's rats. While they get into the house soon if i can't get them from the floorboards soon do yas think?

Honestly, OP, don't assume it's rats just because they're noisy. I live in the countryside so both rats and mice are a regular issue (they come in cycles as the weather changes). It's much more likely to be mice, and they can be unbelievably loud. Very likely they will stay under the floorboards as food is easy for them to find outside, whereas what they're looking for from your house at this time of year is warmth. If you can get bait down, either under the floorboards or outside the house near wherever you think they may be getting in, then they'll die eventually. We have bait down permanently, which means that however much of a disturbance they cause, we at least know it will only last a few days before they die. I know you've had advice to put traps down, but that does mean you'll have to dispose of the bodies, or you'll get smells and flies in due course. If you use bait they tend to crawl off somewhere else to die.

Oh i hope it's mice because i don't think i could live here anymore if i find out it's rats. I do agree they are using under my floor boards as shelter because i can not find a trace of evidence inside the house but it's the constant fear that they will get in near my kids or if i see one. I will try bait under as well. Could they be getting up through pipes? Last night i could hear the usual scuttering noises but i could also hear sound of like water and checked everywhere and nothing was on, so i stood close to the ceiling and it wad coming from there