Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Something lurking in bedroom wall

Google roof rats. That's what you got, since it's moving (and nesting) at night.
Google roof rat prevention. Seal off every part of your house, they only need a 1/4 inch space to get in. Make sure your gutter spouts have the hardware cloth type insert (Home Depot or Lowes) so they can't crawl up and into your gutters and chews through your facia board.

Once they leave a trail (they piss and crap non stop as they go) they keep coming back.

Good luck, you're gonna need it.

No kidding I had this happen in the insulation above my bedroom. I almost asphyxiated my self trying to get rid of them......

If you have or have access to a fiber optic work or bore scope you might could drill a small easily repaired hole in the wall where the noises are coming from and actually see exactly what what you're dealing with and go from there.

Flying squirrels were our 'inside the wall problems' in Florida. Not sure if you have them there.

His walls will be insulated and good luck seeing anything if this is the first sound he's heard...

Let the critter do their thing and get them when they do...

I'd bet on it being a bat. Amazing the small space they can squeeze through.

I guess if the noises are coming from an exterior wall or if their bedroom was added on it probably would be insulated but if the wall is an original interior wall between rooms they usually won't have insulation.

Yes - I made an erroneous assumption about where most bedrooms are located (like my bed!). You are obviously correct.

I want to know if it over-penetrated!

Ed

Yup! Freakin' squirrels keep me busy. I've caught a couple with a roof trap and have yet another chewing on something.

Think this one is on the chimmney wall right beside my upstairs bed. Freaks me out about 5 in the morning. I know that little chyt is chewing on the wires. Hope he fries!!

You need at least a .300 WSM with a 6' twist and it better shoot 1/4" groups at 200 yards or you need to get a better rifle. I would load no less than a 220 grain bullet. Don't pay attention to published data, keep adding powder until the bolt sticks and has to be pounded open, then back off 0.5 grain.

No exit wound=no blood trail...I wouldn't go any heavier than 177cal as it could get messy and nobody needs that. No pics but it was a cranker, it had fruit, small apples and plums stored everywhere so I had to find the stashes and get rid of them as they were ruining stuff. The other bush rats must of seen what I done as they have moved over to the neighbors 3 doors down, they dont wanna phuock with me.

Critter sounds like the Greater California Chupacabra, not particularly related to our Arizona variety. Walk out on the back porch and fire off two rounds from your shotgun, that will scare him away.

Seriously, I had a real pack rat problem last summer, tried all kinds of traps and poison, no joy, finally used a Havahart live trap baited with some dried fruit, caught him in less than 12 hours.

lol I too loved the pic he painted with words


Goin mouse hunting? Use enough gun !

I rented a 130 yr old house in college with a bunch of guys. One of the guys kept a snake which promptly escaped. Boa constrictor iirc. We found it alive in a stud wall two years later...it was well fed.

Our problem here is damn chipmunks. I've declared an all out war...ROE have been suspended. They undermined my 7 step, 8' wide cement porch. Damn thing fell 2". Needed the cement company to inject cement hydraulically underneath to jack it up. $1200 pissed away on the little bastards. They chewed my garage door seal as well. Replaced it and put on some cayenne pepper impregnated silicone. Found a bunch of dog food stashed in my dress shoes. We don't have a dog. Spent an afternoon with a couple cans of spray foam and steel wool filling every hole I could find on the exterior and basement. So far, so good..fingers crossed. I will escalate hostilities without compunction.

http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/images/g/GQUAAOSw4DJYmSYA/s-l225.jpg

We have a few at our hunting cabin, though not many.
The guys got pretty good with these, and treat any mouse appearance as impromptu target practice. There are several of these weapons scattered around, and very few escape.

Where I've been, for goin' on 25 years now, a protracted battle with small mice, Packrats, and the Az. Ground Squirrel, are to be pretty much assumed, and arming up / learning to participate is just part of living well here.
Won't go into invertebrates with exoskeletons,...that's for some different thread.
We're more than ever before, "A mobile society".
A friend and neighbor operates a small and very successful second gen. mom and pop towing company,.... everything from a big recovery truck to little wheel lifts. His "Roll Back" moves a lot of these "pods" to their final spots, after the long haulers drop them at the depots along I-10.Part of the delivery protocol is asking the recipient to break the seal and verify content ....
I was asking him whether he and his family were seeing something I had never had a problem with before ,.....Brown Roof Rats, and Norway rats. He perked up and related several different instances of seeing these "pods' opened and having a fat rat jump out and beat feet into the nearest cover,....Cockroaches, too. In the case of the Norways, the exponents of multiplication from ONE pregnant female are staggering, and hard to believe.

I think Greg W's advice about working that roof for starters is a good one,....get the bastids before they get a foothold.

A SOLID rodenticide program, once in place will let you back away from trapping, at least that's been the case here.

GTC

Conrad,

I grew up in Monte Sereno, and went to Los Gatos High. What you most probably have a problem with is "Wood Rats". They are very common in that area. Outdoors they create a house for themselves by making a pile of small sticks, maybe three feet wide and two feet tall. You may have seen these stick piles. They are also happy to move indoors into walls and attics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushy-tailed_woodrat,

The pest control outfits in your area deal with these everyday. I don't know for sure, but I bet they put out bait boxes.

Another possibility is squirrels. If they can get into your attic they will try to fill it with acorns if you have oak trees. From living in your area, those are my best guesses. Good luck.

We have two owls on the payroll now. I think they ate the cats as they went missing. Rats and mice have all but disappeared here now...

I vote for flying squirrels. At least one species of flying squirrel is very small, and can get in surprisingly small holes. We had mystery animals in the attic of a house surrounded by trees years ago. I went around and around with binoculars looking for where something could get in. the soffit vents and gable vents were screened, but I finally saw a hole in the corner of every gable vent about the size of a quarter. I put heavier screen over them that they couldn't chew through, but we were still hearing them.

I went up on the roof and found that a section of ridge vent had come loose and had a gap of just about a half inch they could get under. Screwed it down tight and we never heard any more varmints in the attic.