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Original poster

What creature is living in my loft?

34 replies

IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:42

For weeks now i have heard noises from our roof space. It is kind of scurrying but more regular. Like a kind of bat-bat-batnoise, fast but rhythmic.

Is it just a bird?

We once had a crazy squirrel scale our house and cling upside down to the outside wall for hours on end, could it be a squirrel nest?

The sound only happens every so often and when we go in the loft to have a look, there is nothing to see , but insulation could be hiding a multitude of monsters....

OP posts:
kelda · 17/02/2013 12:43

Maybe coming from the chimney?

HazeltheMcWitch · 17/02/2013 12:44

What time/s do you hear the noise?

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:45

Thanks but we don't have chimney, its coming from the edge of the loft space, near gutters

OP posts:
Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:45

Hazel, mainly in the morning

OP posts:
Screaminabdabs · 17/02/2013 12:51

The mad first wife.

Screaminabdabs · 17/02/2013 12:51

No, seriously, it's going to be squirrels.

Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 12:53

We have had squirrels in the loft. We had to have the man in. he came in a van with PEST CONTROL written all down the side. Blush

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:54

I Am the first mad wife Wink

OP posts:
Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:55

Would squirrels contain themselves to this one part of the loft? And only come to their nest in the morning?

Ooh, the shame of the pest control van...

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Lafaminute · 17/02/2013 12:57

At least it's not rats!! We had mice once which I was horrified about - people kept saying thank god it's not rats but I thought that they'd be equally bad. Then we got rats......which sound like gnawing elephants in the walls - they'd wake us up at night!! We were renting so we moved but I'm hearing something now that dh reckons is just flashing flapping in the wind Hmm but I'm thinking bats (we do have them) as there are no squirrels around here and I just don't think it's mice.

Screaminabdabs · 17/02/2013 12:57

In that case, OP, those noises are All in Your Head. Wink

Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 12:58

Ours weren't living in the loft but using it for 'recreation' apparently. Sad They had gnawed the wood but not all our tat family heirlooms fortunately. We blocked up the hole where they got in and the pest man put some poison down, but no dead squirrels ever found.

MechanicalTheatre · 17/02/2013 12:59

Squirrels. We heard one one morning, heard some chewing then there was a bang and the lights went off.

No more squirrel noises after that...

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 12:59

Screamin, that is a distinct possibility, the damn things go quiet whenever my dh appears...

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 17/02/2013 12:59

Glis Glis if you're in Bucks/Herts

Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 13:00

OMG Mechanical you must have a fried dead squirrel somewhere.

Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 13:00

Ooh yes Laurie my brother had Glis Glis.

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 13:01

Lafaminute, it seems too regular to be rats somehow, thank god, although the idea of a crazy squirrel and its family doesn't fill me with joy either...

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Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 13:02

Glis glis?

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HazeltheMcWitch · 17/02/2013 13:08

Glis glis = edible dormouse. SOme escaped from Tring, and a mini population of cute loft botherers still exists....

If you hear them in the morning not the evening, I am discounting bats. Pigeons would be intermittently though the day.

It'll be squirrels or rats. Probably squirrels.

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 13:13

Edible dormouse? While now i've heard it all Grin

What about a nest of starlings or similar? We have a lot of birds hanging about...

(Can you tell i am hoping not to have rats/squirrels above my head?)

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HazeltheMcWitch · 17/02/2013 14:56

It's unlikely to be starlings, tbh. And they'd go to and from their nest at dusk and dawn (until babies born), so you wouldn't really hear them scratching about just in the morning. If it's birds, it's 90% likely to be pigeons.

Can you have another good look with a torch? Look at different times of day, and look also for, er, droppings. And/or feathers. That'll help you id what it is. Do you store anything in the loft? Look too for signs of destruction, nibbling, nests...

Maybe it's bats? I LOVE bats.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 17/02/2013 14:58

We have this noise, mostly in the mornings. It is pigeons taking off and landing from our roof.

Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 14:59

Edible Dormouse Yum!

Original poster
IsItAMonster · 17/02/2013 15:21

Thanks all for your help so far, i now have new info which may help narrow things down...

My dh remembered when we cleared the loft to be insulated he found a small (maybe less than one inch long) blueish egg sitting in the middle of the loft space. There was no nest or anything, and the egg was intact.

Anyone know what bird lays eggs like this, my bird loving chums? Grin

Hazel, the noise comes from a section of loft we cant easily access or see through the insulation without worrying about falling between the joists and through our bedroom ceiling, eek.

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