Borrowers?

[jess marley]

I just wondered if anyone could narrow down for me what the galloping noise I hear in the loft is. WAY too big for mice, and not scrabbly enough for rats...a frisky owl? Or , as my daughter suggests, clearly Borrowers.

 

[BMcD]

Perhaps they're training tiny racehorses

 

[worms]

With us it is normally rooks on the roof - sounds like they are in the loft when you hear it from inside the house.

 

[hmboughton]

Could it be squirrels? Don't know if they sound any different to rats, but I suspect they don't sound as scrabbly because of their action.

Hx

 

[jess marley]

Perhaps they're training tiny racehorses

What a lovely image.
Can't see squirrels- surely they're fairly scrabbly...rooks, possibly I suppose, there are some fairlybig blighters round here.
Thanks

 

[Lime]

Could it be smugglers or illegal immigrants?
Have you had the loft inspected recently but can't remember them leaving?
Are any members of your family missing?

 

[jess marley]

Sugglers, of course! Or perhaps, wreckers, being where we are..I don't think immigrants, illegal or otherwise would make it past the parish council, sadly.
Members of my family? Now there's a thought....

 

[Geoffrey]

Don't be so sure about the noise. Last time we had mice in a loft above our bedroom it sounded like a herd of wildebeasts charging around in the night. We too wondered if it could be a squirrel or similar as it sounded just as you describe - something big galloping - but 'twas mice.

 

[thiambal]

Of course if the building is listed and the family of mice has been in the building for years you may need consent to remove them. :wink:

 

[shilly]

we had mice and i was convinced they were squirels because of the racket they caused thundering along the floor each night, so don't discount mice. try a trap?

 

[Me!]

We had jumping and galloping noises in the loft, and it was rats. Get a big, powerful, traditional spring-loaded trap. Give it a good soaking with some ditch water, or rub it with some mud or something to remove the new smell from it or the rats won't go near it. Position it in a corner or next to a joist rather than just out in the open in the middle of the floor and tie it to a nail in a joist or similar because they don't always die immediately and it can be a problem finding the trap again if they go too far. Bait it with a raisin or peanut dipped in chocolate spread, and leave it for at least a couple of nights before disturbing it again unless you hear it go off. Or, ..... get a cat! Good luck.

 

[Paul Hopper]

ours is bods, little ones often I fear with hobnailed boots, find how they are getting in from external (patient) observation , then block up the holes, (after the chicks have gone!)

 

[CHRIS]

Could be a fat "timber treatment" guy sent by a mortgage company who got stuck!

 

[jess marley]

Let's hope so.

 

[jess marley]

Let's hope so.

 

[arl]

birds or possibly even bats?

 

[Schoolmarm]

If the noise is at night, it isn't birds.

Could you climb up and look for poo to try and identify the owner?

 

[jess marley]

Nothing on God's earth would posess me to get up into that dark, spidery, death-watch infested, tomb like hole.... but I might send my better half up later. Thanks.

 

[Carol]

Are you terraced? A neighbour of our regularly 'lost' one of his cats which would travel through his attic into the roofspaces of the next door terraced houses and scare the wits out of the occupants. Cat would return the same way or was occasionally repatriated by a unamused resident four or five doors away.

 

[Zac]

Have been in situ now for 8 months & getting to know the various sounds. The ex-mouse we had in the loft used knaw very loudly on the roof battons, it must echo very loudly because at first it sounded like a mechanical shredder, very worrying, our house was being eaten :shock: A few happy snappers were introduced & that ended that.
A couple of weeks ago other noises were heard, not any knawing this time, but, imagine if you can, the noise that you would expect a rat to make while rustling /scrabbling around. More snappys & rat traps introduced but to no success. The noise was actually squirrels as found out a couple of days ago. Noise used to be most apparent early in the morning, 4/5am, & then maybe the odd shuffle during the day. Keep an eye out in your garden & if you see any of the lovely little rats with fluffy tails my money would be thats the cause of the noise. Just one further thought, while investigating our problem, lifted some tiles in the area of the roof the noise was coming from (will post again when times allows because made shock horror discovery of ants nest in beam & beam crumbling, felt knawed through etc etc, has been added to the ever growing list of must do's, quite high up this one though!!!) & heard scrabbling around & then, best description, barking every time I moved tiles in a certain area, no laughing please, not a laughing matter, maybe.