Sacha wrote:
On 6/12/06 14:53, in article
, "judith lea"
wrote:
I think we have won with our uninvited visitors, son reported scuttling
noises so I put a couple of mouse traps up into loft and over the next 5
days got 9 longtailed field mice. Been 3 days now of no bait taken or traps
set off, so hopefully that's the lot. I may of course be left with the
smarter ones!!
Last night I thought there were elephants jumping right over my head
and in the cavity wall, behind my head. I have just been up there and
all the traps are still baited. I say it is a rat but Edward says it's
mice. However, last time he said that, the vermin man presented him
with a dead rat from number 1 attic, i.e. over the bedrooms! I shall
have to call him in again, this is getting expensive.
I've just had a thought, could it be bats as they do fly around outside
my bedroom window at night and I have taken to closing it as I am
scared of them.
Bats are pretty much soundless and *totally* harmless from your point of
view. We sit outside on summer evenings here, just to watch them and when
one got into our bedroom through an open window, our attempts to help it out
merely confused the poor thing. In the end, we turned off all the lights,
shut the door and left it to its own devices and it disappeared.
Bat watch comes round to count our roost every couple of years. Just
over 200 pipestrelles at the last count. I have had the odd bat get
into the house at the stage when the youngsters first try to fly as
they fit through tiny gaps. They also crash about a bit in the loft for
a couple of nights whilst learning to fly. The tiny ones can't half
climb up a brick wall though!
Unfortunately for them cannot climb up the shiny paint of skirting
boards to get airborne again if they end up on the ground inside the
house. One that landed in the kitchen sink and got stuck alarmed my
wife. If they get cold they go into a torpor and if you find one "dead"
on the carpet in the early morning chances are it will wake up again
when you pick it up and it gets some warmth from your hand. If it shows
signs of life take it back to the roost.
I think you are supposed to have had rabies jabs, and it is illegal to
molest them. But by the time a bat handler arrives the poor creature
would be already dead so it is the least bad option provided that you
are OK with handling small mammals. I was told by the bat people that
it is hard to be bitten by a pipestrelle.. Worth asking advice from
your local group if you have recurring problems with them getting into
the main house.
Regards,
Martin Brown