Mar 24, 2012 – Fix That Squeaky Wheel
QUESTION:
I did a treatment for mice in a large, brand new home where the client called me because he could hear a small noise in the living room. I found lots of holes, so we did a lot of rodent proofing and set traps in the attic, suspending ceiling, and so on. Activity in the basement and attic was noticeable so he cleaned up and this seemed to stop it. He still says he hears noise at the same place in the living room but I don't see new activity. I have baited outside and there is no activity there either. What do you suggest? Do I look under the blown insulation, for bats or what?
ANSWER:
From what you say they definitely have had a rodent problem, but it is important now to identify that "noise" that this customer claims to still be hearing. It is not unusual for pest control technicians to be called out for a bug that keeps on chirping, only to find out it is the smoke detector with a low battery. Perhaps this noise the customer hears is something other than rodent related, or he even may be so hyper-sensitive to mice now that he is straining to hear things that are not there. This time of year it also is possible he has firewood next to the fireplace, and large wood boring beetles within that wood can be chewing and causing audible sounds that he may hear. This happened in my own home this winter until a couple of large eucalyptus beetles found their way out of some wood that I should have left outside. From 20 feet away my wife kept hearing the gnawing sounds.
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I did a treatment for mice in a large, brand new home where the client called me because he could hear a small noise in the living room. I found lots of holes, so we did a lot of rodent proofing and set traps in the attic, suspending ceiling, and so on. Activity in the basement and attic was noticeable so he cleaned up and this seemed to stop it. He still says he hears noise at the same place in the living room but I don't see new activity. I have baited outside and there is no activity there either. What do you suggest? Do I look under the blown insulation, for bats or what?
ANSWER:
From what you say they definitely have had a rodent problem, but it is important now to identify that "noise" that this customer claims to still be hearing. It is not unusual for pest control technicians to be called out for a bug that keeps on chirping, only to find out it is the smoke detector with a low battery. Perhaps this noise the customer hears is something other than rodent related, or he even may be so hyper-sensitive to mice now that he is straining to hear things that are not there. This time of year it also is possible he has firewood next to the fireplace, and large wood boring beetles within that wood can be chewing and causing audible sounds that he may hear. This happened in my own home this winter until a couple of large eucalyptus beetles found their way out of some wood that I should have left outside. From 20 feet away my wife kept hearing the gnawing sounds.
You should place plenty of monitoring traps around this room where pets and people will not step on them, and inspect them over the next few weeks to see if anything is captured. It is useful to clean up all visible evidence of rodents, such as feces and chewed materials, so that a subsequent inspection of that same area would reveal any new activity. I don't know that I'd go burrowing through the blown-in insulation just yet, but definitely place glue or snap traps up in the attic with an attractant on them and see what you capture. In your question you don't actually say that you caught or killed any rodents with the trapping and baiting you have done so far, but if you found previous evidence of mice and now do not then perhaps what you have done has been successful.
I suggest at this time to move onto monitoring, as well as trying to identify what he is hearing in that room. With all the clean up and exclusion you have done you should have made any remaining mice, if they are there, uncomfortable and more likely to be moving around looking for new food resources, so hopefully you will capture them if they are present.
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