There's often something rustling rubbish bags, and running around in my daughter's kitchen. She's never seen the culprit, is there any tell tale behaviour that points to one or other rodent?
She thinks they do an occasional little scream or bark as well as the rustling and patter of feet.
Any idea? I'm going with rats, daughter is betting on squirrels..
Could be a bear. They like going through rubbish.
Potentially a moose? They've been known to be loose around dwellings before.
Raccoon
We had rats. As confirmed by wildlife cam footage of them on the worktops, in the sink, behind the appliances etc. Stinking vermin, piss stinks!
Noises in the ceilings too. We called the pest control bloke, he laid three different baits, gave loads of advice and returned a week? later to a vermin free house. £60.00 well spent.
Squirrels make various alarm calls and use tail "flagging" too. Short sharp barks and bird-like sounds are most common. Find the calls online to identify the critter
is there any tell tale behaviour that points to one or other rodent?
Yes, they shit as they walk. It is impossible to have a rodent infestation without the presence of large quantities of droppings.
Unsurprisingly mouse droppings are very small whilst rats droppings are as you would expect significantly larger.
I'd guess that rats are a lot more likely than squirrels - strong smell of rat urine, look for droppings. It could, I guess, potentially also be mice, much smaller droppings. You need to work out how they're getting in then exclude them and then kill / remove anything left inside. Secure / remove any food sources, particularly if you're going to use baited traps, but do it anyway. Rats and mice tend to come out at night btw. They have poor eyesight, so tend to move alongside walls etc.
We had a couple of rats, which I think, got into the house from the sewers by climbing up the inside of a drain pipe to the gutters then into the attic under the eaves - I found droppings by the probable entry point which I blocked. Also fitted wire mesh to the entrance to the drain pipe and glued a metal grid over the exit from the drains where I'd actually seen a rat emerging. Finally I fitted a rat flap - one-way stainless steel valve - to the main pipe leading into the main sewer, so they could get out but not in. That left two trapped inside the house which I eventually removed / killed.
Particularly in urban areas, rats tend to feed in the sewers, but look for drier, more comfortable places to nest and sleep eg: your house. There's a limitless supply of the things, so you need to work out how they're getting in and stop them doing that rather than just killing them.
Botfly hive behind the sink? Could also be extra-terrestrials.
Gives the occasional bark you say, it could be a teenager.
I had this in a house I rented a room in in Stoke Newington when I was a student. One day I walked into the kitchen to find myself face to face with the culprit, a rat the size of a cat!
What Ernie said.
No idea about squirrels though.
One day I walked into the kitchen to find myself face to face with the culprit, a rat the size of a cat!
My first home was a dairy farm. Once when I was very young my gran was accosted by a rat whilst coming back from cleaning out the cow sheds.* Armed with a muck shovel* she had at it. By the time my grandad dragged her away from it, it was two foot by three and the thickness of a cheese slice.
(* - my gran, not the rat)
Excellent replies! Bear, racoon, moose!
Daughter has been dropped off, heading to Manchester via Euston, I'm expecting a damage report in the morning.
Sounds like a job for the landlord rather me, but....
Siberian hamster.
Just get some little nippers down and wait for the 'SNAP!'
The squirrel version of this has removed the squirrel problem from our garden. We now have way more little biords visiting and the flowerpots stay planted rather than spread across the patio. I assume the rat version will be equally effective. Remember that they rarely live alone and with this trap you can just leave it in place and with will take out a dozen per refill.
https://goodnaturetraps.co.uk/humane-rat-traps/
Have a good look and see if you can find a ratchet lying there, just a wee bit bigger than mouse's one and they are wee Niger seed looking things
see if you can find a ratchet lying there, just a wee bit bigger than mouse’s one
nope, but found some mole grips a bit smaller than a pigeon's one.
Probably a Demigorgan.
Impressed by that mouse tidying up the workshop. We had one in the understair cupboard and all it did was chew holes in everything. In the end I sent a cat in there to collect it, removed it from the cat's jaws and released it under the shed....
We had mice. Kept hearing rustling in a cupboard and found lots of droppings behind it. Old house so took ages to block everything up and get rid of them.
Mice can squeeze through very small gaps too.