I checked the Havahart website, and I can special order a Havahart trap with HEU bait and a primordial monobloc conduit. How cool is that!
Ooh! Cool! They finally integrated the Stantz/Spengler polydimensional containment field into the design.
Well they have to go to the attic as under the bed is too crowded with Commies.
I’m voting for racoon, mostly because that’s what we had. And that’s what they sounded like. And they’re nocternal.And they can climb so could get a higher floor. And the gnawing may one building a nest ( :eek: ). One day we were sitting there by the window and saw a racoon skitter out of the attic carrying a tiny baby racoonin her moth like a kitten. It was adorable. Particularly because it meant they were leaving.
I vote raccoon. There was one behind my apartment wall once, which the maintenance men found after they got through patting me on the head and assuring me that nothing could get into where I said the sound was coming from, love. Uh huh.
Anyway, it was a raccoon. It sounded much larger than a raccoon when it was doing its scratching at night, and gnawing was a featured activity. If you do run across it in person, be careful. Angry or frightened raccoons are meaner and more dangerous than you might think.
It’s a genuine critter, I assure you:
http://www.pestproducts.com/roof_rats.htm
Look for rat droppings (tons of black crap, same shape as grains of rice but bigger) and long greasy “skid marks” along pipes or trees or other pathways along/up your house.
I had plenty of skittering and gnawing noises in my attic at night for a long time. I’ve closed off some (but probably not all) of their paths outside the house and found one attic vent that the mesh had come off of which I fixed. So far things have been pretty quiet. Plus I got a cat.
Rats can get in through amazingly small openings (like an inch or less) so it takes a little work to seal up all entrances but it’s not rocket science. Like I said, trim all vegetation way back (they recommended four feet here) from the roof, find every hole in your house (crawlspace to roof) and rodent-proof it with hardware cloth (fastened securely - little staples won’t do it). Look at pipes and cables and stuff as well, there will be evidence of critter activity and you may find openings into your house you’d otherwise miss. Check the soffit vents (attic vents under the roof overhang), make sure that they are covered with wire mesh.
Raccoons are huge - 10-20lbs. That’s a big cat or a small dog, I imagine they’d need a pretty noticeable hole to get in and out.
Good bet that it is a racoon. I have had problems with them around the house and have had to relocate about four of them. Had them get in the attic too.
The Hav-A-Hart trap is good, but make sure you get one big enough for a racoon. You can usually guess which way they leave the house to forage at night, usually by their tracks. Put the trap near where they seem to travel. Bait the trip-pad, the entrance to the trap and around the trap with marshmallows. I ran a wire through a bunch of marshmallows and tied them to the sides of the cage above the trip-pad so they had to stand on the pad to get the marshmallows off the wire. Otherwise, the smart little bastards would eat the bait and not set off the trap.
Once the trap is sprung, they will spend the rest of the night trying to claw their ay out. They will flip the cage over and this can allow them to open the trap doors. I ran a couple of old broomsticks through the wire mesh of the cage to keep them from rolling it over, but they just chewed through the handles and rolled it anyway. I finally nailed the trap down to a long wide board to keep the trap upright.
When you release them, put the trap about ten feet away from a bush or shrub and open the trap door with a wire or bent coathanger. The racoon will usually make a run for the bushes, which is just what you want.
We once had flying squirrels in our attic.
The first winter in my farmhouse I had rats. Sometimes it sounded like they were bowling up there. And although they lived in the attic, they made forays into the kitchen for food. It was awful. I tried traps, cats and dogs and finally put down poison.
StG
Black rat crap and skidmarks?!??? :eek:
Oh. Not those kind of skidmarks, I guess.
Bosa, just flying squirrels? No moose? They must have gone to the attic because Boris and Natasha are under the bed with the rest of the Commies.
It might be an ocelot; I found one in my attic once. My neighbor down the hill owned a couple and they’d escape from time to time. They’re usually only violent if provoked, so, no poking with sticks.
Whatever it is, you want to get it out soon, before spring. If it has babies, they are staying for a while. If it is in an attic that you have access to, you might have success in trapping it, but if it is in the soffit, things might be more difficult.
You should also be aware that in some states it is illegal to trap and relocate animals.
Yes, I’ve dealt with both issues before, with the @)#(@)(! groundhogs (yes, I know it’s their day and all, but I hate those fat-assed hosta-chomping fuckers) and their offspring, and with a raccoon in our chicken house. Couldn’t shoot it, because we were in city limits (oh, and we didn’t have a gun either), and couldn’t trap and relocate it. Our city’s finest came to our aid and did the deed.
Probably just your mother-in-law.
:eek:
You had me worried. But I just checked her restraints. She’s still in the garage.
Or your husband’s first wife.
No moose.
Merely meeces.
Which I hate.
To pieces.
possibly a beaver? you did say big teeth
my uncle in maine had a beaver in his house once when i was little
so its possible
A beaver? In his attic?
Beaver in the attic? Ocelot in the attic?
I vote for the latter, because…BAND NAME!
[Monks]
I’ve got an Ocelot in me attic, and I don’t know what to do with it.
[chorus]Ocelot in his attic![/chorus]
[chorus]Ocelot in his attic![/chorus]
I’VE GOT AN OCELOT IN ME ATTIC, AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!
[chorus]Ocelot in his attic![/chorus]
[chorus]Ocelot in his attic![/chorus]
[/Monks]