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Good nesting material for pregnant rats?

How can I tell if I have rats or mice in my loft or maybe even something else?

  • I have discovered that there is something or several somethings nesting in my loft. My attention was drawn to this when I heard a lot of heavy scuttling across my loft in the middle of the night. There were no sounds during the day. On going up to the loft to investigate, right at the back of the loft, there is a nest, and a little hole has been made for the entrance. I keep quite a lot of bits and bobs up in the loft such as clothes, boxes, furniture etc, and also the odd packet of sweets. Not that many sweets but the sweets that are up there have all been eaten by these creatures. There are a lot of empty sweet wrappers all outside the entrance to their nest. I have found a bit of their poo, and it is small and brown. Is there a way of telling if they might be rats or mice? I believe if they are rats then it is the council's responsibility to get rid of them? Could it maybe be a red squirrel nesting in there? I am not happy with the idea of getting the pest control team in. I do not like the idea of them being killed, and they seem so sweet, eating the chocolates and leaving the sweet wrappers outside. If I get rid of all the food, will they go of their own accord do you think? Is it worth trying to pick the nest up myself and chucking it outside? Many thanks!

  • Answer:

    there are always exceptions to these rules but if you hear activity at night it is usually rat, (though nesting squirrels will occasionally stir in the night)...rats squeeze down in an opening while squirrels chew open, there openings are usually around a tennis ball in size, but some times rat also chew on there opening expanding them in size. The only animal I have heard of that will carry plague on them in the Dallas area are squirrels..will see a story about it every couple of years, so they can cause health issues along with they are much more damaging to wires than rats are. With you finding candy wrappers I would tend to point to rat, but squirrels do not just eat on nuts, at times they will also eat such items as candy, insects, baby birds.

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Go sleep in the loft! Get traps and bait them.

If the poo is about 5mm long and about 2mm wide, it's mice. If it's bigger than that, it's rats (also the hole to their nest will be smaller if it's mice, usually about an inch diameter). It's most likely to be mice or rats, not a squirrel. Definitely get rid of all the food in the loft, I've seen rats chew through thick plastic boxes to get to food. They will also destroy other things to make their bedding, and migrate to your kitchen when they run out of food in the loft (they probably won't move out of their own accord unless you clear everything out of the loft for a while and deprive them of a safe nesting place), so you really do want to get rid of them. One option is obviously a cat, but you can also get humane traps that catch them so you can take them faaaaaaaaar away (not outside, they'll just go back inside, I'd take them at least a couple of blocks away) and release them, just be careful as wild rats and mice harbour a lot of diseases and can be very vicious.

Sprinkle some flour around the opening near the nest and check the footprints after a couple of days.Google mouse/rat prints are check your results. If you throw the nest away they will probably make another if they have nesting material/ warmth/food . We have just had mice chew through a power cable so I think you should find out what you have in your loft and try to move them on .

david m

Sit in the loft very still at night and wait for them to move. Put the torch on and se if it is rats or what. If you like them just leave them alone. You can also feed them if you like just keep in mind the can carry all sorts of diseases, I really think you should get rid of them. If you don't want to kill them you should get the pest control to put out some repellent or get yourself one of these electronic pest repellers. They work well, ask your hardware shop what they can sell you.

Henry

if you do not want to kill them...then either get live traps or work to repel them...but first you need to know what critters you are dealing with-if the poo is small like rice-they are mice...if it is bigger like the size of the word mice up there in your question--they are probably rats--get live traps the appropriate size and check them daily--or you will have a dead critter in their anyway---remove critters and leave them miles from your house--if you do this in the dead of winter they will die anyway without a food source. if you can get up there when the critters are out and about outside--leave ammonia soaked rags in their nest--go put flashing over where the hole is.maybe stuff it with steel wool first-you can also litter the floor with moth balls--but note that they stink to high heaven and will probably gas you out too--they are also cancer causing---you can always look for fox urine to spray around to get rid of critters. mice are also supposed to hate peppermint oil--but I have found they tend to get used to it...and if food is around they will deal with it.

Kiss Me Kate

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