Argh!!! We have critters in our roof!!!

[melissel]

Not in the attic as far as we can tell (no droppings, traps haven't been touched, nothing has been chewed on that we can see). But we can hear a little bit of skittering during the day and chewing all night long *shudder* The chewing noises went from being at the outer edge of the roof line to being in the middle of roof area where no attic exists.

 

I just called the exterminator, and the woman who answered seems to be convinced it's squirrels, even though our squirrels are enormous and there seems to be no opening large enough to let one through. I'm terrified that it's rats, and they seem to be working their way TOWARD the attic area :ack2: :crying: Our exterminator can't come until Tuesday afternoon. Has anyone BTDT with this? We've put traps in the attic itself, along the wall that borders the roof-only area, but so far nothing has bothered them. What can we do to reach critters INSIDE the roof itself?

 

Any experience/advice is much appreciated!

[Starr]

I would be going crazy too even though we're in the country and between our friends and ourselves we've heard of about everything. I would think the traps and the exterminator would do the trick. They'll probably stay put until Tuesday.

[lllll]

Maybe they're flying squirrels. Try to think of them instead of the other things until the exterminator gets there. Flying squirrels are adorable. Rather tame, slow, tiny ... our cats catch them off and on. They live in our shop roof. They're also mostly nocturnal. They're harmless, as far as I can tell. Maybe it's only flying squirrels .....:001_smile:

[lionfamily1999]

:glare: btdt, got the holes in the ceiling to prove it. You know how a hamster can squeeze through the tiniest holes? Squirrels can do the same thing. The gnawing sound... that is probably nesting.

 

Exterminate them, before you find little paws poking through your ceiling. Trust me. Then have the exterminators find all the holes ALL THE HOLES and block them up.

 

Argh! I used to love squirrels.

[FriedClams]

I recommend the rodent boom box. It's a silent - to humans and pets - transmitter that annoys them and they leave. The mega box was $25, small ones come 3/$21 and cover 1 room. They work great.

[mominbc]

Oh, that familiar sound.:svengo: In our last house we battled with rats, they got into our heating vents and we could hear them running through them all night long...never got into our living space thankfully. We were told that the only way to get rid of them was to cut off their access to the roof. If they have nothing to climb the can't get on the roof essentially. That's what the exterminator told us anyways. Hope you get rid of them, and hope they are just squirrels. :grouphug:

[plansrme]

They have these blue pellets you can scatter in your attic to repel critters. I don't know how the little guys are in your roof but not your attic, but to keep them out of your attic, throw some of this around. It really works. The package says you have to refresh it every 6 months, but it isn't hard, at least for us: stick your head through the attic door and throw it into the far corners.

 

If you find evidence of rats, rat poison has come a long way--it now comes in a nice little sealed plastic package, like a small pack of Skittles, that the rat eats through and then, with any luck, die far, far away from you.

 

Terri

[gingersmom]

I had critters in my roof. I would sit at the computer and hear them overhead. Awful!!

 

They were going from my gutter and chewing a hole into the roofline. The animal removal guy put heavy heavy duty wiring stuff around the area (had to be reinforced once because they were so determined) and that did the trick.

[melissel]

Sweet fancy moses, I can hear squeaking up there :willy_nilly: Now we have to move :(

 

Thanks for the input, everyone. I noticed that no has reported that their rodents bred so much that they overthrew the human owners of the house and took it over, which is a relief (of sorts). I just have no idea how we'll get them OUT of there! I guess I have leave that to the expert on Tuesday. In the meantime, I'm going to turn the music up really loud and pretend I know nothing :crying:

[melissel]

I recommend the rodent boom box. It's a silent - to humans and pets - transmitter that annoys them and they leave. The mega box was $25, small ones come 3/$21 and cover 1 room. They work great.

 

Unfortunately, DH bought one of these and it doesn't seem to be affecting them *sigh* Maybe the mama can't move her babies at this point? UGH!