Something Is Scratching in my Wall!!!
 

What do I do?!?!?!?

I'm guessing it's a mouse. My wife thinks it's a mole. We never had any rodent problems before. I heard this scratching today and I wasn't sure what I was hearing. Now I came home and it's very apparent something is in there.

What do I do???

If around here, it would be a rat. Best thing is the kind of poison that makes them thirsty. That way they will exit to find water before they die. And that's a good thing because a dead animal in your wall is not a fun thing.

BTDT.

I think it's trapped in there and it's scratching to get out. I'm worried it's going to die in there and stink.

Could be a Bat.

Don't bet on it being trapped more likely it is knawing on your wiring, or nesting...

So CAL is the RAT Capital of the world and no we are not talking about Liberals. The place is just temaing and crawling with Fruit, Wire, Roof Rats....They nest in attics, palm trees, Ivy and eat the fruit right off your trees..If in the attic they knaw on the electrical wiring, shred the Furnace Ducting...and can slip through a 1/2 inch hole...LUV the lil ba$t@rds...

They brought some Palm Trees to LV from S CAL and guess what there was a Rat problem for awhile...

U have to be carefull about Pets with that type of poison...a friends cat got hold of a dead Rat that was poisoned and the poor cat BLED OUT...everywhere....

Better way mix xome CEMENT with Peanut Butter...and guess what the RAT gets TERMINAL CONSTIPATION...they can't eliminate the cement....

Squirrel I'll bet. They can scratch up a storm.

Correct, IMHO. I've seen what rats AND squirrels can do to house framing members. They will eat their way in AND out, if necessary.

From our past experiences I would guess squirrel.

Options:
1. Call Pest Control company
2. My neighbor had this and opened up the wall and put a live trap
in the room with bait and caught the critter
3. Put trap with peanut butter on bread bait in attic above wall - I did this in
Virginia and trapped a whole family nesting in the attic.

Good luck and don't wait too long,
Roy

I unfortunately had that type of problem for awhile with my house after construction was completed. I just didn't get around to closing up the place like I should have. I had mice, but I don't know what exactly you might have. They would start a quick paced scratching sound in the middle of the night, and wake me up with it. I completely closed up all the places where they could get in by making wood frames with quarter inch mesh to cover mostly the crawl spaces and a couple of other places. I did that everyplace I thought they could get in and didn't leave even the smallest crack where they could enter or exit. Just before I finished, I bought some rat/mouse bait packets from H.D. - the ones with the blue granules. I placed about 12 or 15 along the bases of the stem walls and up on the base plates. Right after that I didn't hear any scratching & haven't since. I did put some more bait a couple of weeks afterwards for good measure. When I've been under the house later on I've found several dead, dried mice, but there was no odor actually.

Critter?
http://ts2.mm.bing.net/images/thumbn...565218d8ca6782

it makes a big difference whether it is a squirrel or a rat/mouse - the former are day active and latter night active

your wall is their lair and they will be in there when not active

if you close off their opening at the wrong time, they will die inside your house and stink (with some disease risk also) until the carcass dries out -- weeks or months

I would figure out the times they are inside & see what that tells you. You can do that while looking for the tiny entrance hole.

hope they don't have breeding nest in there, BTW

Probably a pack rat. My in-laws used to have them when they lived on a plantation. They'd be working in the walls behind the bed all night (the rats, not the in-laws). I wouldn't poision them (rats again) or they may die in the wall- figure out how they're getting in and set some traps.

I don't think any species of Neotoma gets further than a few miles into So. NY State.

So I heard the scratching for most of the night and a little bit the next morning...then nothing. We had hoped it just moved on.

Yesterday I started to smell something bad in the vicinity of the noise. So I had to go in.

After cutting five holes in the walls, this is what I found..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1284397201.jpg

It took a whole day to get the smell out of my nose.

Mice can make an incredible racket - all out of proportion for their size. I live in the woods and we have squirrels, chipmunks, and mice. The mice are the only ones that get in the walls. Around here noise in the attic = a squirrel has breached our defenses. Noise in the wall = mice.

matt is that a rat or a mouse?

next time, to get the smell out, burn some toast. the sooty smoke will suck out any nasty smell. the smoke clears (open your windows) and takes the offensive odor out with it.

i would seal up every crack. that rodent got in there some way.

I don't know!!! It's either a big mouse or a small rat. I can't tell.

I think it may have come in through the attic and possible got into the wall through the ceiling.

Last time I heard scratching in the wall, it was one of these guys.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1284403696.jpg

Looking at the tail and the poor quality picture, I would discount it as a rat or mouse. I would say it was some sort of Vole, possibly a meadow Vole?

A friend of mine flips houses. He buys them from a bank after the former owners have trashed the place. He had hauled a big dumpster worth of trash from the inside of one house. Every day when he went back over there he noticed one area smelled real bad. He was ripping out most of the drywall since almost all of it had holes kicked into the walls. He found one area inside a wall where there were dozens of mice skeletons. There was a gap of a few inches in the header on top of the wall. The mice would walk along the header and fall into the same gap. He made sure that hole was plugged before he put up the new drywall. He put up traps on the headers and caught several mice before he was done with the remodel.

Yes! My wife was looking it up yesterday and she thought it could be that. So maybe you are right.

My understanding is that they burrow in the ground. How do they get into a house (inside a wall) that has no basement. It's a slab on grade. ???

Is there a tree that rubs against your house? if so it is possible that the little guy somehow got in through an attic or soffit vent.

Theres' a dead amoeba laying on your wall plate! A big one!
Assuming you have 2x4 walls the space he's laying in is 3 5/8 wide. I don't know how big voles get in your area, but not nearly that big around here. It's a baby rat or a very large mouse.

yes, it looks like a vole - they are mice tho

it probably climbed to get in - most or all species do - some voles are completely arboreal and get eaten by Spotted Owls

BTW - spray the are with bleach and never NEVER touch a dead animal with your bare skin - there are many nasty diseases that they or their fleas can carry

AND the fleas can & will jump a few inches to find a new host (you)

According to this, Voles grow 4 - 8 inches.

Vole - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I wore gloves and picked it up by the tail with a pair of needle nose plyers.

your man card, please.:)

No way! I removed a bird's nest after a cat got in there and killed either the male or female. What did I get as a result? Immediately.... bird mites.

Next time full protective gear and then it goes in the wash with very hot water as I hit the shower with same.

Yours as well.
Bird mites...a mere flesh wound...pfft!!

I'll admit, I am kind of a p*ssy when it comes to this stuff.

Better catch him before he gets in your P-car.

Better find out where they are getting in, and fix with metal.

Sometimes the facia under the gutters is cut short leaving a gap, or flashing next to porch leger board/sill plate is missing.
This makes a nice entrance into a nice warm place during the winter....

I can see some day light at the eaves of the roof in the attic. So I have to take a look and see what's going on.

If you find one, there are more in the area!