Help I am at home in rural Northern Europe and there are crunching and tearing sounds coming from the ceiling

[Eeyoreshouse]

Do you think it could be rats?

There are no scrabbling sounds of running feet at all. But it's the sound of an animal literally tearing something (wood, plaster?) with its teeth. It's so loud that it sounds like they are in my room but they aren't. It is very very loud. It stops briefly when I tap the ceiling with a stick but then carries on.

For clarification I am sleeping downstairs and the upstairs is an empty (not developed) beamed roof space built in the 1730s.

I have heard the same sound before (it usually starts at 5.30-6.00 and continues for about 45 mins or so) but it's not usually as loud as this!

What the jeff is it?

No they are not house mice or field mice, we get those too but not in the loft. These are edible dormice. Much bigger than a mouse, more like a small squirrel.

Fascinating. Apparently the loir is practically extinct in Normandy but we do have the lérot (though I have never seen one.) As we don't know where the OP is, it is hard to say what might be living in her roof.
🦇🐒🐝🐭

Just returned to lots of replies! Thank you for them!

I'm afraid, stupidly, I have this all wrong. Old wise grizzled country chap has inspected the room this morning and whatever "it" is, is not in the roof, it's either in the space between the old outer wall and the horrid inner casing (modern faux boards) that line the room, or in the hollow ceiling.

Frenchfancy & Annafivetowns gosh, I never thought of dormice or pine martens! Tbh the farmers here seem to shoot anything that moves that isn't a cow

Billywilliamv

It could be a bird Saraclara as as I heard some tapping, but no feather rustling or cooing!

Noise did not get louder when tapped Chillimayo!

Noted votes for squirrels!

That's hilarious Heronlanyon

Sorry if I have missed anyone out! Wi-fi very dicky. Has taken aeons to type just this! Thanks for all responses though and for new French vocab!

Hadn't considered polecats either!

Lots of people taking out faux boards now. The current theory is bats!

Will report back.

And then the thread went silent ... dun dun dun!

I thought bats straight away! Hope you find out soon!

We quite often get mice falling down between the stone wall / insulation / plasterboard. Scrabbling up, sliding down again and chewing noises are very loud.
We have had bats too (circled the bedroom a few times while I hid under the bedclothes) but they were very quiet apart from the sinister beating of wings......

Apologies for silence! Not deliberate I promise!

My relative and I have been catering for a large number of visitors today and we have been flat out in a very hot kitchen.

We haven't had a great deal of time to devote to it but a few boards have been levered off wall but we haven't found anything as yet. Sorry to disappoint, will report back when we do, but we have more busy days ahead.

I'm tired now so going to bed and hoping for a peaceful night/early morning.

I don't like the idea of falling mice!

Thinking about it though, there really isn't any scrabbling. It's more tearing and chewing.

We had a huge nest of wasps in our loft and we never heard a thing. Only found them when DH went up here for something and nearly put his hand right in the nest! I’m going with squirrel or rat.

My vote is for the gliss gliss.

Eastern rural France here and we have bats but luckily they live outside. And what we think were polecats, which made loads of noise for months... then it went quiet and we happened to look in a cupboard under the eaves... dead, decaying polecats I'm pretty sure they made a hole in the roof to get in

My money is on the fouine - my neighbour had one up in the roof years ago and it spent its time eating away at her insulation and was a complete nightmare to get rid of. I actually saw another one go under her gate when I came home at 1am a coupe of weeks ago....!

Hello just falling in to bed after another long day of taking visitors out and about and cooking in 90 degree heat.

The latest update (beef farmer neighbour popped in and was shown wall where "it" visits) is he thinks it's what he called a belette except that is my translation (using Google translate) of what he said which sounded like an attempt to say weasel in English which came out as "way-zelle" (farmer is French speaker). He said he thinks it is that because (exactly as Frozentree said) they like chewing on insulation.

Is that the same as a fouine perhaps and that is not the same as an English weasel is it (do English weasels climb up high)?

The jury is still out though because we haven't actually found any concrete evidence yet. Rats were also mentioned but I am heartened by Frenchfancy's observation that they don't climb up high unless they have no other choice and there are lots of other barns where they could live here.

Btw "it" did visit again this morning, not for as long this time, but there appeared to be two of "them" as I could hearing the tearing and crunching sound in two different places along the wall, where the wall meets the ceiling.

We'll see what tomorrow morning brings... (today, that is, given the late hour).

Just had a look at French Wiki and other sources and belette is a weasel and fouine a marten, but I also found this:
"la fouine est un petit mammifère carnivore qui vit la nuit, qui fait preuve d’une très grande agilité mais qui est affublé d’une mauvaise réputation. Comme d’autres Mustélidés, la fouine dégage une odeur peu agréable mais pas aussi forte que celle qui émane des putois, blaireau ou belette, notamment."
So a fouine is a bit less smelly than a belette, but you really don't want either of them in your house.
Hope your neighbour can help you get it sorted OP.

We’re in Germany and had a pine marten in our roof a couple of years back, super noisy — but more scrabbling than tearing , got the local pest control in to deal with it, but you can’t kill them here as they’re protected, be he put down a pheromone spray and — touch wood— it’s not been back since.

DH has just appeared with the morning tea to say he has seen the first house mouse of the season in the kitchen. Traps have been set. Oh the joys of country living.
I like the fact that the verb fouiner is used to search through things or nose around. The same as we use the word "ferret" I suppose.

Oh that is very interesting, thank you MissClimpson . There doesn't appear to be any malevolent smell thank heavens. Not currently anyway!

"It" did visit briefly this morning around 5.40 am and there was a lot of tapping this time (more bird- like on this occasion anyway) but I was so tired I quickly fell asleep again.

I would be very happy if it were pigeons tbh.