Noises in my loft

[Shewie]

I've just been up to get my canoe gear out for Sunday and couldn't see anything. I need to pull a few more facia boards down and squeeze myself through into the void near the chimney though. It's about 50 degrees up there this afternoon though so I think I'll wait until later tonight or in the morning.

If it was wasps should I expect them to find them flying about up there ?

I don't like wasps at the best of times (bad childhood memory) so I want to be prepared if I disturb something.

 

[Mesquite]

If it was wasps should I expect them to find them flying about up there ?

I don't like wasps at the best of times (bad childhood memory) so I want to be prepared if I disturb something.

You might see some wasps in the loft but you're more loikely to see them outside the house. Just have a wander round outside to see if you can see a load of them buzzing around at one spot. A pair of binoculars might help to spot the exact entrance.

 

[British Red]

you've got mice.
.

Yep

We call the noise "skittering". Squirrels and birds are louder. Never heard our bats yet.

Rats are much louder

Red

 

[Blades]

I would have thought from a bushcraft forum there would have been more advice about setting up a hide down wind of the scratching, not washing for 5 days and setting up all manner of snares, traps and death pits to trap the little scoundrels causing the commotion.

Are you telling me all the time I've been watching Bear was for no effective purpose? :'(

 

[Shewie]

I would have thought from a bushcraft forum there would have been more advice about setting up a hide down wind of the scratching, not washing for 5 days and setting up all manner of snares, traps and death pits to trap the little scoundrels causing the commotion.

Are you telling me all the time I've been watching Bear was for no effective purpose? :'(

There's an idea, now where did I put that scrim net

 

[stevesteve]

I would avoid poison. Rodents can smell bad if they die in awkward places (memories of a student house with dead rats under the floor <shudder>).

Apart from a block of cheese and a twelve bore... I would go with traditional backbreaker traps and some choc. In Herts there are Gliss gliss on the loose and they are a nightmare in a house.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Opal]

Big possibility of rats, you're bound to hear them more too when yer go to bed, I know quite a few people who've had them in their loft.
I suggest you plant a bomb, not too strong, just enough to blow the roof off only, yer might feel a bit chilly after but yer rat infestation will be solved.

 

[hedgepig]

Sounds like mice to me - had them in the loft a few years back when I lived in Wiltshire. I bought a live trap - it reset itself after every catch and I was catching about 4 mice at a time. They were yellow-necked mice so I took them to the woods and released them. Years before that I'd had house mice (the smelly ones) in a house in London. I put down poison and suffered with the stench of rotting mice for the rest of the summer (couldn't find the dead carcasses!)

 

[Shewie]

Sounds like mice to me - had them in the loft a few years back when I lived in Wiltshire. I bought a live trap - it reset itself after every catch and I was catching about 4 mice at a time. They were yellow-necked mice so I took them to the woods and released them. Years before that I'd had house mice (the smelly ones) in a house in London. I put down poison and suffered with the stench of rotting mice for the rest of the summer (couldn't find the dead carcasses!)

Those live traps sound interesting, don't suppose you've got a link have you ?

 

[Shewie]

Would something like this work with a bit of choclate in it ?

 

[Ruvio]

i'd try a live trap first too, coz you might have squiggles, not mice, and those little guys are funny

 

[Dingus Magee]

It might be bats. I had them in student house I lived in years ago. They make a weird light scratching noise late in the day just before they fly out for the eveing.

Don't send your cat up if it is. They are the only british mammel that carries rabies. You can get them moved by experts. Sit out side this evening to see if can spot any coming in and out. If you go into your loft wear an FFP3 mask, any type of animal poo breathed in is really bad.

Bats are not the only mammal that carries rabies! Rabies has, so far, been prevented from coming to UK by strict controls. The reason bats have it is that they may have come from the continent, where rabies is endemic and carried by a wide range of mammals, including foxes, badgers, dogs, cats. When bats are found on North Sea oil rigs, they are removed by personnel who have received anti-rabies injections (and bl**dy painful THEY are, I can tell you) as a precautuion against the possibility that the bat may have crossed to the rig from mainland Europe.

http://www.future-of-vaccination.co.uk/rabies-disease-infection.asp

 

[hedgepig]

Would something like this work with a bit of choclate in it ?

That's exactly the same as the one I used!

Edit to add: Placement is the important thing here. Mice like to run along the edges of thing, so place the trap against a wall where the mice will run into it. They'll be inquisitive, especially if they smell food. Now apart from the fact that I used to catch multiple mice at a time and we got rid of them all, I've actually seen the trap in action...how? Well...

I was transferring the mice into a box to trabsport them to the woods - I was in the back utility room at the time ... but what I didn't know about yellow necked mice was that they can jump ... oh yes! One jumped clean out of the transport box at which point I dashed after it as it went into the kitchen, made a full circuit, out into the hall and into the front room ... with me bounding on all fours after it ... only to see it disappear under a seat.

Hmm, problem! I was due to go out to work and I couldn't leave the thing under there in case it decided to take up residence. So, what did I do?

Step 1: Think
Step 2: Plan
Step 3: Acting
Step 4: Breath a sigh of relief and a virtual pat on the back

The reasoning was that if mice liked to run along walls then all I had to do was place the live trap against the wall and then lift/tilt the seat in such a way that the mouse would be encouraged to run towards the wall and then along it in the direction of the trap ... easy does it ... and BINGO ... the little critter ran straight back into the trap that it had just spent the night! D'oh!

There was only one mouse that died in the trap - it looked like it had tried to gnaw its way out and suffered cuts to its nose, it then seemed to get all sweaty and then died. I think the poor wee thing dies of shock. All the others were fine though ... bounded off into the forest with gay abandon!

 

[Shewie]

Hi, slight possiblility it could be wasps.
I remember years ago hearing a noise just like rice crispies covered with milk coming from the loft and it turned out to be wasps making a nest. The noise was them chewing wood to make it into the paper they make their nest from.
Just a thought because of your description of the noise - probably wrong though...

Spot on fella

Just been unloading my canoe off the car and noticed a couple flying about near the eave of the roof. I sat down on the wall over the road and counted at least twenty so it's a call to the exterminator tomorrow I reckon.

Noisy little bleeders aren't they ? They must have some serious wood munching jaws

 

[EdS]

you can borrow some bee keeping stuff if you want to go afte them - me I'd leave them.

We get than in the roof - i tend to sit on the roof and watch them instead of killing. Get rid of a lot of the greenfly etc so saves me a job.

 

[Shewie]

you can borrow some bee keeping stuff if you want to go afte them - me I'd leave them.

Cheers for the offer Ed, but me and wasps don't get on. Bad childhood experience involving a cricket ball, a conifer tree and about sixty angry wasps.

 

[listenclear]

Spot on fella

Just been unloading my canoe off the car and noticed a couple flying about near the eave of the roof. I sat down on the wall over the road and counted at least twenty so it's a call to the exterminator tomorrow I reckon.

Noisy little bleeders aren't they ? They must have some serious wood munching jaws

Yeah mate, it's quite a disturbing noise too.
Hate wasps myself but the good news is that its easily sorted. A call to the local pest control will sort it out quick smart. I remember the guy sprayed a white powder over the hole where they came in and out and it meant they were caoting themselves in poison and taking it to the nest. They all die very soon after that and you can relax.
Cheers mate

 

[EdS]

I may be able to borrow the gear if you can get access to the nest.

 

[Shewie]

I may be able to borrow the gear if you can get access to the nest.

Access isn't great Ed, I need to climb out of the landing window and then shimmy along the church roof next door. I'll try and reccy it tomorrow and let you know.

 

[Shewie]

I may be able to borrow the gear if you can get access to the nest.

Got a guy coming round this aft to sort them out, I used to play golf with him in a previous life and he's gonna do it for £20.

Saves me any more traumatic experiences