Archives for March 2009

It’s 2 in the morning and I’m a little freaked out right now. The wall between my dining room and kitchen is making noises. There’s something alive in there and it’s trying to get out! Or at least that’s what it sounds like to me.

It sounds big!

Yesterday afternoon I heard noises coming from my dining room area. We have an open dining room living room area, and I was sitting in the living room on the couch. I thought the noise that I heard was coming from my turtle terrarium. We have two box turtles and they were both active yesterday afternoon digging in their earth and going in and out of their water area. I just figured the noise I was hearing was because they were being more active than normal. (We were supposed to have rain yesterday and they always seem to get more active when it’s about to rain).

Putting the noise down to the turtles I tuned it out and went on about my day. However, now that it’s after midnight and I’m sitting here watching TV and working on my laptop I can no longer tune out that noise. A little while ago I went to check on the turtles after hearing noise coming from that area again. The turtles usually sleep at night, but sometimes they move their little houses around or start digging. They were both sleeping though …

Then I noticed that the sound seemed to be coming from the dining room wall.

We have a large canvas sitting on the buffet and it rests against the wall. The sound was almost like a moth or some other kind of large flying insect trapped behind the canvas. I moved the painting and there was nothing there.

Nope … it’s either in the wall or the ceiling near the wall. The sounds are fairly loud and it seems like whatever it is in there it’s trying to dig it’s way out of the lathe and plaster wall or ceiling. There’s sort of a papery peeling scratching noise.

Once I determined that there was something in the wall I went and woke up my husband, Chris. Poor guy. At first he didn’t hear the sound and he disappeared into the basement for a while perhaps thinking the sound I was hearing was coming from downstairs, but once he heard the sound he agreed that there’s something in there. We can’t do anything about it in the middle of the night though!

What could it be .. could a mouse make that much noise?

If so perhaps we scared a mouse on Saturday when we started cleaning out our cluttered basement in preparation for the changing of our oil tank in April. Maybe there was a mouse in the basement and it climbed the basement wall and got trapped in the wall on the main floor?

If it’s not a mouse or God forbid a rat (I have seen some rats outside in our garden and in the neighbors yards) … it could be a squirrel … perhaps one got into the attic and then made it’s way down the wall?

Maybe the animals been in our walls for a while and only just started making noise in an area that we could hear it yesterday.

I don’t think it’s a raccoon unless it’s a very small one. Sure it’s possible one could have gotten in to the attic from the roof and then possibly into the rest of the house .. but I think it would have found a way to make a hole in the wall by now. Plus the walls aren’t that thick so as I said it would have to be a small one.

So … it could be anything from a mouse, rat, squirrel to a raccoon or some other creature. Whatever it is, it’s noisy and not to scared when I tap the wall and ceiling near the wall. Oh the sounds will stop for a few minutes, but then they start up again.

I hope it’s a mouse … I’d rather not have a squirrel or raccoon break free from the wall into the house! Both of those animals can be mean and scary when they feel trapped and scared!

I’m glad we have a dog! As friendly as Midnight is to all of the creatures and people that’s she’s met, I think she’d try to catch whatever is in the wall if it manages to get out (then try to play or make friends with it). Of course I don’t really want her tangling with a mean squirrel or raccoon, but she’d probably help us scare it and maybe herd it outside! Of course she’s in her crate at night so she won’t be much help if anything happens in the next little while.

If the animal doesn’t break free between now and when Chris gets home from work tomorrow evening, Chris is going to take a peak in our attic (a small area accessed by a 2 ft x 2 ft square in the upstairs closet ceiling) to see if it looks like any animals managed to get into our attic.

I have a feeling that sometime between tomorrow evening and the weekend Chris and I might end up taking down the dining room/ kitchen wall. Hmmm … the kitchen reno might start sooner than planned … too bad we have ZERO money to do it! We probably don’t even have enough money to hire a wildlife removal or extermination (not really for that) company to come in and take care of the problem either.

Have you ever lived somewhere where there was mice or rats in the walls? If so … did they make a lot of scritchy scratchy papery/ feathery rustling noises? Or for that matter have you lived somewhere where a wild animal got into the house, perhaps via the attic and then into the walls? What did you do about it?

I’m not sure how to go about solving this problem or even how to find the creature. As I said above I’m not really into exterminating wildlife, plus since we have a dog I don’t really want to put out poison in case she somehow got into it. I do however want whatever is in the wall out of my house!

Any ideas as to what kind of animal we might be dealing with and or how to safely go about getting it out of the wall?

I’ll keep you updated on this situation as it unfolds …

Tricia … curled up on the couch fervently hoping that some wild animal doesn’t break out of the wall or ceiling! Creepy …