Eureka Was Premature But Maybe Now...

That night I heard the rampaging rat, the squirrel soccer team, or whatever was up above my ceiling again. It bangs and clangs and pads and saws! It's directly above my home office. Sometimes it sounds like it's sawing a large piece of wood. Sometimes it seems to be picking up a small piece of wood or a screw and throwing it around. It runs from the office to the laundry room and to the guest bath. Banging on the ceiling directly below it doesn't phase it any more, though this move was followed by a long silence the first time. Sometimes it seems to be twanging wires, playing our electrical system like a guitar. And sometimes I can hear it dig into the wood of the house with it's teeth and pull a little piece off.

After a couple of nights of this, I called the exterminating company and demanded a supervisor. He spent several hours, all over the house. He found another hole under the shingles on a back gutter. He set various traps in the subfloor. It has been quiet...for one night.

Waiting to downsize this animal and again hoping it's done.

Ma'am, There is Not an Animal in Your Attic

Today I was exonerated! I know they talked about me; thought I was crazy. But no more. Now we are working together, again, to downsize: we're ready to rid the house of whatever animal is setting up a workshop in the attic.

The exterminator came in to check and remove traps he had placed a few days ago. These traps had been placed 3 times already in the past few weeks, with no evidence of success. This morning, the exterminator left, saying very politely, "You might be hearing something late at night in your walls, but I don't think it's an animal!" I told him I would not ask for more traps; I'd watch and listen and let them know if any new evidence became available that might help them.

It wasn't that I was letting them out of their contract easily; they have been to my house 5 times already during January. The first time, I complained of animal noise in the attic, and they found a hole through the wall in the gutter. They patched the hole and left 5 traps. The second time, they came to check the traps. Three traps had sprung, but no bait had been taken and no animal had been caught. The exterminators came back several times and placed traps in different parts of different attics (we have 3). A supervisor even rechecked the entire roofline from a ladder.

The logical situation would be that with a hole patched, an animal would be trapped in the attic and would either go for the bait or would die of starvation somewhere within the walls and would stink. Nothing happened. But nights, sometimes 11:30, sometimes 1:00, and once at 4:30 AM, my husband, I, or both of us would hear noises and would listen and try to locate the noise. I went outside, shined flashlights, listened with my ear to walls, sat quietly staring at ceilings...and heard animal activity. I think Santa's workshop might be relocating to my attic! There is scratching, scraping, banging around, twanging, pitter-patter, sawing, and gnawing.

Then, this morning, after the exterminator left with his traps and his opinions, I heard scraping and gnawing above my head, during business hours for the first time. I phoned the exterminator and he came back...and heard it! He set more traps. He believes me now. I hope we get the animal(s) out before they have a problem or cause a problem.