Something has been running around in the walls for weeks, the neighbours in the other half of the semi can hear it too. I only ever hear it in one place at a time, which made me think it was only one critter. It’s in the cavity between the houses, between the floors in my house, and in one interior wall. I can’t find any trace of any droppings or smell anywhere, or anything chewed.

The neighbours have access to under their house and have put down mouse traps with zero results. Since it seemed to only be in the cavities that I can’t access, I figured I couldn’t put traps down, so posted some bait into any cracks or holes I could find. No reduction in the pitter patter of feet/claws. Just to see, I left some bait in the loft, and it to my surprise  (I’ve never heard anything in the loft) it has been carried off, without a trace, twice. Still the feet are pitter pattering in the walls. Apart from the bait disappearing (I thought first time I must have made a mistake and not put it there after all), there is no trace – no smell, no poo, no chewed stuff.

Once the farm store is open again I’ll go and see about traps now I know there’s a spot in the loft where it’s been. But what is it? What sized creature trap should I be looking for? What can carry off a bait block and leave no trace? I am experienced in rats and mice and have never known them to leave no trace like this!

Squirrel. They get into lofts sometimes.

Not mice imo – there is a reason for the saying “quiet as a mouse”. Squirrels can be very noisy.

Ghosts

Or aliens

Most likely ghosts

Do you have/ can you borrow a wildlife camera? When beset with the same problem as you I found that we had rats. Horrible creatures.

@ambrose good idea! i don’t have one but know someone who does.

@ernielynch Mice aren’t that subtle or quiet. Thought we had a rat or rhino on in the loft, but the noise stopped after trapping a smaller than average mouse.

It’s MI5 listening in.

Was going to say the same thing as ernie, sounds like a squirrel to me. They’re noisy feckers

Id just ( and do) default to rat traps.

Then look for an entry point.

Sorry, I will try and be quieter. Please leave nicer snacks next time though.

When we had what sounded like mice it was actually bats – coming and going via the attic but the house was a converted old stone building and the could scurry up and down the gap between the stone outer walls and the new timber frame lining the conversion. Just let them get on with it. Apart from being able to hear them (which we just zoned out after a week or two) there was no harm being done.

Is your house built on an old Indian burial site?

Downside of bait can be the smell if it pops it’s clogs in the walls.

Mice aren’t that subtle or quiet.

They are compared to squirrels! Yeah you can hear the pitter patter of mice walking on the plaster of a ceiling but I wouldn’t expect to be able to hear them walking inside a cavity wall.

Tbh initially I ruled out a squirrel as I thought that a cavity wall would be an alien environment for them (unlike mice and rats they don’t live in tunnels) but when Hannah mentioned the loft, and I know that squirrels in lofts are quite common, it occurred to me that the cavity wall might act like the hollow in an old tree.

It’s the matrix. This happens when they change something.

Maybe read Broken Harbour by Tara French for some tips?

If you like crime writing it’s one of her better ones.

Some interesting stuff here:

http://wildliferemovalusa.com/squirrel-wall.html

“so if you do hear noises that move upwards or downwards, this will often be a sign that the problem animal is a squirrel. Rats and mice generally stay on the floor of a wall cavity”

We have bats in the loft in our place in Ireland they do sounds like wee mammals when they are moving around when they come in, sometimes noisy enough to wake us. I think we may be a bat nursery for them, but they are quite cute little things.

Step 1, Set up a video camera watching the scene,  sit down in an arm facing the offending wall with a bottle of whisky and a loaded shotgun.

Step 2, Start firing once you’ve heard noises AND consumed at least half a bottle of whisky.

Step 3, Put up resultant video for us all to chortle at in the new year.

😃

think we may be a bat nursery for them, but they are quite cute little things.

And highly protected. I believe that they have legal squatters rights if they move into your loft.

Welcome to the club.
I’ve got a motion detecting camera set up in the loft now, and can confirm the pitter patter of footsteps is indeed a squirrel….and a big un.
I’m still waiting on some bits of soffit vent to stop it getting in, but temporarily I’ve put some rags covered in white wine vinegar which they seem to hate…and so far it has only made a very temporary appearance before I’ve chased it away.

And highly protected

Oh definitely – they are highly protected.

We had them in an old shed as well this summer but that was quite a short stay. Straight across the valley from us they have there own house, an old two storey farm house that has been converted into a bat house, so I think we have them visiting us

First rule of bat club. Tell no one you have bats.

From the three local folk I know with bats who went down the correct channels and regret it expensively.

Ooh, I’d like bats! But I doubt very much they’d be hauling off blocks of bait. They’re very much running vertically… I don’t mind squirrels, but I do mind destruction of my house. Will find a wildlife camera and report back!

so far it has only made a very temporary appearance before I’ve chased it away.

Apparently that can work – if squirrels are repeatedly frightened they will give up on go elsewhere. Banging saucepans is suggested as an effective way to freak them out, and also leaving a light switched on in the loft.

We have mice in the walls which we can easily hear when they are active though they aren’t *noisy*. I know where the entry point is but it’s pretty inaccessible to me (a loose stone wall abutting our house so the “hole” is hidden), every so often I leave traps outside the house and have caught as many as a dozen in a few days and it goes quiet for a while but they soon recolonise.

When we first moved in 8 years ago, they were occasionally getting into the house but I filled in some holes in the skirting boards and it hasn’t happened since. Maybe one day they’ll bite through a cable and we’ll have real trouble but I don’t care about the occasional bit of scrabbling.

Can you speak Parseltongue?

I don’t mind squirrels, but I do mind destruction of my house.

Depends… Grey ones? Get them deaded. And remember if they are grey you can’t humane trap them then let them out.

Bats do climb, they have to climb as the y can’t take off from the ground

I’ve got one of those Eufy cameras rather than a specific wildlife camera (other makes are available). It’s got a siren that I can set off when the squirrel triggers it and that seems to do the job. I can also talk to the squirrel using the Eufy app, but I’m told boring it to death is not humane.

It’ll be possums.

I think it is the smell of peppermint that bats don’t like so you could splash some peppermint essence in the attic to dissuade them from returning, if it is bats.

Eugene???

I don’t mind squirrels,

You do not want them in your house. The order of preference for rodent occupation is directly proportional to their size.

They are rats with PR, they chew, gnaw, poo and pee just like rats, unlike rats though they also hoard crap, including food, which they then forget about and leave to rot, or worse to take root.

Mice are preferable to rats are preferable to squirrels.

My guess is rats. There’s probably nothing to eat or drink inside your cavity walls, so they’ll be using them for shelter/nesting and eating elsewhere, quite possibly the sewers. We had the bastard things under the front room floor and inside the walls elsewhere in the house. My best guess was that they’d accessed the floorspace by tunnelling in from a broken Victorian era drain pipe – the clay cracks – but also that they’d got into the attic by climbing up the inside of a downpipe from the guttering then under the eaves. Clues were dropping and cam footage fo the things emerging from the drain at night… anyway, a one-way rat flap on the main sewer outlet sorted it out.

The basics are that you need to work out where they’re getting in then seal that off, then trap owt that’s left behind.

I’m not sure squirrels are into cavity walls, so more likely rats or possibly mice, which can make a significant racket when amplified by hollow places. Good luck 🙂

Fwiw . We had rats in the cavity prior to extermination

We had mice once and tried all sorts of traps and bait. The most successful was peanut butter in humane traps. Cought 3 in a couple of days.