ONG scurrying noise tonight

[StormCattitude]

Tonight I'm upstairs crafting, so sat still for ages. My children downstairs directly below me watching TV, also unlikely to have moved for ages.
I heard a weird noise around 11pm, couldn't place it as I had music on low. Wondered possibly if it came from the chimney breast but unsure.
Next thing my DC shout that they're coming up to bed, they'd heard a scurrying noise in the living room. They couldn't place it either, but said the cat looked alerted (she's old so this just means raising her head in the direction of suspicious noise these days).
I went to the living room & we quietly stood for a moment. The noise started again, but moving location. Basically it sounded like something moving around in void between the downstairs ceiling & upstairs floor.

It's got to be a mouse, or mice, hasn't it?

What do I do? What can I do? Actually have rodent poison as we're not far from a park, but I've never used it as it was more bought with the garden in mind. Wasn't expecting this. And if I used poison inside and a mouse died in the void it'd stink wouldn't it? I'm post covid with no smell so might not even notice!

Just me & my DC. No experience with this & no one to help me / us. Don't think I'll sleep tonight anyway, plus DD is in my bed & has said she wants music on all night as mice don't like noise.

Thinking back, the other day I saw the cat sniffing at a new doorway to the extension which hasn't been fully plastered yet so possibly open to the void. I thought she was just being weird. And I remember waking about 2-3am a couple of months ago & hearing something which sounded like something was moving possibly in the loft (I never go in there) but I was half asleep & after I'd got up to try to place it, it stopped, didn't hear it again so I'd forgotten about it.

IMO humane traps are not particularly humane, if you release rodents away from their habitat they will just die or be eaten by predators anyway.Rodents are short-lived so don't feel guilty. It sounds like mice (I posted a link to my thread here a few days ago, re apples) so a couple of snap traps (cost £5) from Screwfix or Toolstation left under the kitchen units will do the trick. Only call a professional or the council if you have no luck- they may not be much more successful than you. You can Google or use YouTube for advice.

Get a trap on amazon or ebay and bait it with chocolate (mars bars work well). We have glisglis in our neighbourhood and they are really noisy.

You’re welcome @LynetteScavo. I wish I didn’t know anything about mice either 😢😢😢

But we live in an older house in the country so we get field mice in some autumns as soon as it turns cold. A few weeks ago they got inside my wardrobe and destroyed about 10 items of clothing. And look what the little bastards did to my curtains 😡

@Stomacharmeleon we used rat traps in the roofspace which caught a couple of them, we thought that was the end of it but no there were more. We phoned the council who advised us to do everything we had already done ie check loose roof tiles (we live in a bungalow), check for any holes in, use traps, poison etc. In the end poison worked for us, I bought blocks from Homebase and kept them in the roofspace. It turns out they were getting in through the cavity walls from a broken sewer. The manhole in our backyard was lifted and part of the concrete in there was crumbling, the rats had easy access to inside of our walls. Its been fixed and touch wood there's been no more but I keep poison permanently in the roofspace now just in case.

We live rurally and get them in the walls occasionally. I only know because my patterdale starts pacing around and going mad! We rarely get them actually in the house (maybe three or four in 15 years) and they don’t give us any issues. If one dares to step out the dog gets it.

My neighbours house is full of clutter and she has has mice on and off. I ended up with one in my kitchen, the pest control man said to put bacon or ham on the trap as when they tug the meat it will go snap!
The neighbour also gets rats! This summer in a space of an hour we filmed about 14 running back and forth to her shed. The only time I talk to her to to tell her to sort out her pest problem!

Oh god I’ve got something in my loft I heard it scurrying across the ceiling last night my whole stomach turned and I will admit I did cry as it freaked me out so much. I’m calling someone up tommorow but I’m worried it could be rats ? I’m in a new build and it’s clean in here so not sure how likely that would be , I don’t have a clue about these things. Feel for you with it being inside the home and not the loft that’s even worse.

Snap traps with chocolate. You could stick box or something over the top with hole in it to stop cat getting at traps

We had the little skitters last year.
Find any gaps and block. Check beside radiator pipes and the hotpress.
They will go for chocolate.
There is also pet safe poison which is safe to cats and dogs. Keep all doors closed.
Mice droppings are small and black .
Check and seal all your exterior walls. Use tubes of filler from homebase or such for any gaps however tiny.

Hoping you get sorted promptly.

Just a thought, could it have been the wind or anything?

Chocolate works in a snap trap

The neighbour also gets rats! This summer in a space of an hour we filmed about 14 running back and forth to her shed. The only time I talk to her to to tell her to sort out her pest problem!

You need to get environmental health involved! That's an infestation and they will breed with fury and it will be your problem too.

We had mice in our attic in summer and I would lie in bed listening to them! No idea how they got up there! Think we caught about 9 massive ones in traps. We used Chocolate and peanut butter

Heard the scurrying again tonight, earlier than yesterday which was about 10.30-11pm, tonight was around 9pm. Scurrrying the width of the living room ceiling near the window then stopped after about a minute, when DC thunder downstairs & must've startled it. Today's beginning of the declutter didn't reveal any evidence. The noise is so obvious either this thing has just moved in, or it was living quietly elsewhere and somehow got lost in this part of the house, maybe trapped.

House about 90 yrs old. Fairly urban area, residential with a park with stream 1-2 mins walk away. What do squirrels sound like in houses?
Also thinking about how this beast could be travelling about, could a chimney breast potentially be used to move between the loft space & the 1st floor / ground floor ceiling void?

our guests used the cavity walls to move up and down. but you might not have those with an older house.

DC had covid a few months ago, so most of windows were permanently open, I wonder if the creature got in then through an opening..?

Ooh stumbling across this thread as this week I’m pretty convinced a rat has moved into our wall cavities. Ive got traps down with no joy so far a d stuffed every cavity I could find with wire wool and I’ve left messages for 3 pest control people.

We love rurally, surrounded by fields in a really old house so I’m quite familiar with rodent issues!

What seems to have worked for us is making the house generally unappealing and hard to access:

• plug in sonic repellers
• lavender, mint and eucalyptus sprayed every evening (apparently they hate the smell)
• blocking every hole we see with wire wool (we’ll never get them all as house is so old, but when we see one we block it)
• being as tidy as possible and keeping clutter / furniture away from skirting boards where we can so that they have nothing to hide behind.
• all food in Tupperware, kitchen hoovered daily (no food allowed anywhere else in the house)

Seems to have done the trick so far - no seen any evidence or heard them for quite a while now, but we certainly stay vigilant! They’re an absolute pain, but they’re just looking for somewhere warm and safe with access to food. If they don’t feel safe and there’s no food around they should move on pretty quickly.

@StormCattitude

Can't do peanut butter, DC have nut allergy. Any alternative? Got my poison from Screwfix, guessing they'd have snaptraps too then. I was so chilled crafting earlier, first evening I've taken to myself in months, now I'm a bag of nerves. Lived here over 20 years, never had a problem before!

Chocolate spread apparently is a favourite, but I guess this often has nuts too? What about chocolate icing?

For those with rats in cavities - you might benefit from a drain survey as they can get n through cracked pipes. Bait or trap in loft spaces and
underfloor boards.

ohyoubadbadkitten eeeek I started doubting my confidence in a mouse Las night cos the noise just sounded like it'd be softer for a smaller rodent, and now you've said that... we had Bob the Bodger builder do our extension a few years ago. Had drains fully camera'd etc at the time but you've hit a nerve that their shoddy work maybe only been good enough to hold up a few yrs.
I've written a list of Q's for the council pest people, doesn't look like I've time today to call as I have 15 mins left of lunch break & finish work after they shut. I'm expecting with call wait to be answered & my list of Q's that 15 mins ain't enough!! On half day tomorrow so will call them then. Arrgh.
My eldest DC started showing stress from this last night / this morn, convinced that Christmas (a season when by chance a lot of bad stuff has been timed for my DC, going right back to their father walking out of their life overnight when oldest DC was 2) is ruined. Broke my heart. Bloody squatting vermin.

featheredhope have u tried your council environmentalhealth department, do they do pest control?

double3xposure omg your curtains! I'm yet to find any signs in the actual house but your curtains are unmissable. Hope they weren't your favourites.

Her657844 sorry to hear, but u know I TOTALLY understand how you felt. Reminded me of episodes of Doctor Who my kids like... there's something living in the floor & it's moving about 😱

Just a general thank you to everyone too, you're all stopping me getting over-panicky & helping me keep focus in a practical way. I appreciate you all 😊

Well after this thread I have been proactive and ;
Phoned orbit and made official complaint about tile (missing for three years) in roof.

Spoken to environmental health who said they would deal with Ratatouille in my walls!

Spoke to housing about substandard accommodation and lovely houses being left to rot by housing association.

Thank you again!