Over the last year or so, Mike and I have noticed a sound coming from the attic. No, it wasn't a ghost (although that might have been a far more interesting blog post than what you're about to read). It was an occasional squeak, scratch and rustle. Both of us were pretty tolerant of it - I don't really mind harboring a critter as long as it leaves me alone.
That all ended on Wednesday night.
We both awoke at three in the morning to hear a rolling sound... it started at the top of the roof and continued all the way to the bottom... then moved back to the top, over and over again. This continued for the next two hours, at which point the mystery critter fell asleep. Unfortunately, both Mike and I had to get up for work (someone had to put a roof over the critter's head). It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
Today I called in the big guns - a local pest control company with a good reputation (a lot of the neighbors use them). There was both good news and bad news. The good news is that we have now retained the services of said pest control company who is going to help with the ants, mice and woodpeckers. Yup, they can actually do something with those suckers - apparently there's a spray that deters them from banging on the side of your house. Honestly, that was the selling point for me! Well, that and I don't have to see anymore of the creepy millipede things. Or black widows. Or any other kind of thing with too many legs.
The bad news is that the critters in the attic are mice (the climbed up there and found all sorts of "droppings"). While that would seem like an easy thing to take care of, the company was very honest with me in saying that sticking traps, baits, poisons up there is only a band aid - the biggest thing we have to do here is to find where they're getting in and close that up. The really bad news is that a mouse can get in through an opening as small as a quarter of an inch.
So, Mike and I have our work cut out for us over the next few days, but at least there's something we can do that (hopefully) works!
I've been waging a war against the mice in the attic for about a year and a half. The good news is that with the help of my pest control company I appear to now be winning. He sealed up the spaces where we think they were coming in. Good luck with the battle!
ReplyDeleteCoupla comments...
ReplyDeleteDon't use sticky traps. The poor critters take days to starve to death. Mouse-traps are much more humane.
Those tiny openings they can get in by can be blocked with steel wool. Mice and rats and most rodents have underslung jaws, which means that their sensitive noses reach things before their teeth do. They definitely don't like the feel of steel wool on said schnozzolas, but they can't reach it with their teeth to chew it up without carving up their noses. It works. Trust me.