Rodents in the rafters

tryppyr

tryppyr

Joined
Feb 5, 2010
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Over the holidays my wife and I began hearing the skittering and scratching of unwanted guests living in the inaccessible crawl space above the kitchen. When I went looking for how some animal might have found their way into that space I found that some rodent had gained access to the crawl spaces underneath the floors of the family room and the kitchen. The damage down there was pretty substantial... a lot of sub floor insulation had been ripped up, town down, and soiled beyond description.

So the very first thing I did was to buy some rat poison and put some bait stations in the sub floor crawl space.

After a few days it was clear that wasn't going to solve the problem, so we called out an exterminator to do a site survey and give us a report. A woman came out and spent about two hours at our home, wandering through the crawl spaces (at least the accesible ones), looking for and photographing the damage and potential entry points, and laying 15 rat traps around.

When she was done she sat with me and showed me the photos and report and described all the work she thought needed to be done. The work was broken into two quotes... one for "exclusion" (work needed to keep rodents from gaining access to the house) for $1900, and the other for cleanup and repairs (replacing the insulation, mainly) for $3400.

When I told my wife about the quotes she nearly collapsed from shock. Needless to say, neither of us was particularly intersted in lightening our savings by $5300, especially on the heels of the holiday spending.

One of the big tasks of the "exclusion" effort was to replace the screens on the vents of the sub floor crawl spaces with something that could resist rodents. I went to Lowes and picked up some much stouter material and put it into place in addition to the existing screens. Much of the remaining "exclusion" work was deemed "optional", but included putting flashing around certain vents, fixing a few loose cedar slats, and filling in some holes that other contractors had left behind. All that I can and will do myself.

While crawling into the attic area to place another bait trap near the kitchen I ran across one of the previously placed traps that had a dead squirrel in it. After placing the new bait trap I removed the dead squirrel and reused the trap that caught it.

All told, so far I am out $300 for the measures already taken. I expect I'll probably have to spend another $1000 or so on insulation to replace what has been damaged. With the new exclusion measures in place I suspect I'll be reasonably safe from rodent intrusions for some time anyway.

But the real blessing here is that we no longer hear the thundering of tiny hooves on our ceiling while eating our breakfast.
 
Those guys are a pain. Bad thing about rats is they are skitish and new traps will sometimes scare them away because its something new in there environment. Good on you heading up the work yourself.

We had some issues with them up here (WA seems to have more rats then anyplace else Ive lived) but we had a really good cat for a while who killed countless rats in the area. Ofcourse he would bring the flea infested things into the house to show his handywork. Cats are great for killin the darn things though.

I will give ya a word of advice for WA contractors which I am sure you already know, get about 4 more opinions if you dont want to do it yourself. We had some electrical work on another house and it was amazing the difference in quotes we got. We wanted to move a fuse box from outside to inside and put in a new weather head. We had quotes ranging from $3000 up to $6000 for the same work. Finally after about 5 different people came out we found one guy who was very good, proffesional, drove a beat up little truck and did a excellent job. He charged us $1500 with a full break down of every part he used, time involved for the job down to the minute and stuck to his quote. Plus the inspector new him and said his work is some of the best he has scene in a while.

Oh almost forgot, one thing with helping to deal with little critters is clear out brush around the house. This has helped alot in a couple of buddies houses I helped with.
 
I have been fighting squirrels too. Keep your eye on the places they were getting in, when I would try to plug the hole they were using they would go to work trying to open it up again.

A few years ago I was in the shop late one night and a squirrel fell out of the ceiling about 10' from me , looked at it and went right back to work. About 10 mins later I heard something else fall from the ceiling and I didnt bother looking right away. When I did turn around I realized a 5' black snake had fell from the ceiling.
 
Yeah, good point about clearing out the brush. My house is in a heavily wooded lot, so we don't have much "brush", per se, but I did spend a couple of hours making sure none of the trees near the house provided a super highway for rodents wanting access to/from the roof. Any branches or boughs that came anywhere near the house got cut WAY back. We're still looking into having some more difficult to reach branches cut back, but for now we're pleased with the progress already made.

Amusingly, when I began that effort my wife didn't know I was on the roof. She heard me thumping around up there and thought we had another invasion. When she found out it was me she breathed a sigh of relief and came out and helped cut the big branches into little ones for the yard waste bin.

We're both allergic to cats so I doubt we'll be getting one... but perhaps we can cultivate a friendly relationship with some of the neighborhood strays.
 
I'm surprised Squirrels are moving into your crawspace. They aren't burrowers or ground loving animals. I could see an attic, but a crawspace? And tearing up insulation? Are you sure it's not ratcoons? This behavior sure sounds more like coons or possums than squirrels to me. Just a thought.
 
David,

I have no real idea what moved into the ground level spaces. My assumption was rats. I think they're already gone anyway. I'll know more once I've removed and replaced the damaged insulation.
 
Here's something to keep in mind. A friend of mine had very extensive damage done to their house by racoons. They had to move out for a couple of months while repairs were done. The good thing about it is that their homeowners insurance covered everything!
 
we have them all here in Naselle . Squirrels , field mice , chipmonks , moles and racoons . Take your pic.
 
Yeah, I thought about a tiny terrier... but I already get too little sleep, and having a yappy little dog in the house barking at all the underfloor activity won't help me solve that problem :)
 
Anything bigger than a mouse you have to find how it gets in and plug the hole ! I have mice occasionally but immediately put traps near where they come in and that takes care of it .I've never found where they come in on the outside , only the inside .Yes I've caught a few snakes but they are good for catching the mice.
 
On Monday we had a professional service go into the crawl spaces under the floors and clean up the mess, replace all the insulation and vapor barriers, and seal any remaining access points for the vermin. After they left I immediately heard the skittering of little claws up in the attic over the kitchen, so I retrieved one of the rat traps, smeared some fresh peanut butter on it and put it into the attic.

Yesterday I decided to check, and sure enough, there was a second dead squirrel... this one more grisly than the first. The first had it's neck snapped by the trap. This one had its skull crushed. There was even a little blood on the trap. It's cold dead eye stared at me accusingly, but I was unmoved. After bagging the corpse, I put the trap back in the attic again, just in case the unforunate couple had some relatives that wanted to come visit. Come get some fresh natural peanut butter... I dare you.
 
Squirrels are a SERIOUS pain in the ass..................... very destructive. I bet raccoons would be worse though.

We had one here that was getting in through our attic fan. I caught him finally with a Hav-a-hart trap and some peanut butter. Then I sealed up the fan with 1/2" chicken wire and aluminum flashing. Solved that problem. Sounds simpler then it was though. Next time I buy a fan it'll have a cage with it.

In the UP at a friend's cabin I had to deal with a porcupine once upon a time and that was a nightmare too. I wound up shooting it in the head with a .22. Next morning I went out to get rid of the carcass and it was gone, I wondered if he woke up as a zombie and motored off into the night. Maybe he was carried off by ants.

Syn
 
The worst part of this problem is that the squirrels were nesting in a part of the attic that is inaccessible by humans. We're seriously considering cutting out a hunk of wall and installing an ugly entry point just so we can clean up whatever mess they left behind.
 
Don't know how close you are to town or neighbors, but I've lived in the country for the last 35 years.
Nothing works quite as well as a few ears of corn on a post and a .22 or a 410.
If you can't do that, get a rather high powered air gun - a .22 caliber.
Set a post outside your kitchen window with a little snack on it for ol' Rocky and dot the little bastard right in the eye.
Dead mice, rats and squirrels pose no problem.
They're not endangered. Kill 'em all. :thumbup:
having had many, many problems with rodent-type critters, I've learned that you never have one.
If you have one, you have 20.
Stop the breeding process by eliminating them any way possible.
Don't use poison.
They just start dieing in the most inconvenient places and stink up the whole house.
However, I do highly recommend "lead poising" out of the end of a barrel.
I haven't had any problems for years, and when it starts, I end it quickly. :rolleyes:
 
I went to a DIY pest control store and was annoyed that they spent so much time trying to conviu me to use non lethal methods.. Lik killing squirrels was somehow immoral. This episode has unleashed the nacent hunter within me.
 
Non lethal?? No. You want them dead.

tryppyr said:
I went to a DIY pest control store and was annoyed that they spent so much time trying to conviu me to use non lethal methods.. Lik killing squirrels was somehow immoral. This episode has unleashed the nacent hunter within me.
Click to expand...
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
Non lethal?? No. You want them dead.
Click to expand...

What he said. We don't negotiate with rodents here. And for us, the only use for a live trap is so we don't have to chase them down. In 2011 we killed 13 raccoons which were killing our chickens. I don't normally like killing things, (and I've never killed any squirrels; they're not a nuisance here) but coons hold a special place in my heart.
 
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