I woke up this morning to the sound of something ticking at the window screen.

I looked out the window didn't see anything. A few minutes later, i hear a gnawing sound. (Something chewing on wood inside the walls or in the attic area.)

Some kind of varmint has eaten away at the caulk and mortar chunks have broken off and has made the whole in the photo. It is probably an inch wide between the window and the limestone.

The house was built in the late 40's. It is a ranch style house, so the roof is low, it is difficult for me to gain access to this end of the house through the attic.

What are they? How do I take care of them? What do I kill them with? Are they rats, squirrels, bats or birds?

 

A few traps in the attic will help with the problem.

 

It's probably a squirrel, they're notorious for this. When you go to fix this back up put some chicken wire or any kinda wire mesh over the hole and then caulk over that and it will keep em from gettin back in. Don't worry about trappin it, just fix the hole during the day and odds are pretty good it won't be in the house. They only really come in to spend the nights rights, they're busy gatherin their nuts during the day.

 

Or you could just listen for 'em and shoot through your ceiling with a shotgun. That'll get'em

No on second thought I would go with Uncle Bubba's recommendation

 

I'll put up some screens over the cracks and make sure that they aren't hibernating in my walls.

This weekend I'll fill in with mortar and caulk.

 

Patch the hole, put a rat trap w/ peanut butter in the attic. You might want to string a wire from the trap to a nail so the critter doesn't drag it away if it's caught by the hand or something. You don't what it dying and smelling up your attic/house.

 

Like a ex-girlfriend... Her Dad's place is a old dairy farm. Well the farm house has no crawl space under it. But it does have vents to keep the foundation dry. Well they have a hell of a time with Skunks. Yes skunks... What they do is load up under the house with Mothballs and fix the vents with new screen and bar it shut...

So if you make the environment unplessant the animal will more on... Once you have see signs of them fix the hole. About once a year check around the house closely for these things and deal with the quickly...

My own story is having a family of bats move into my chimney... Light a fire and smoke them out... The evironment was unpleasant so they moved on...

 

Sounds like an Entity to me

 

I guess I could hook up a hose to my tail pipe and smoke them out that way ... but, that would probably make it unpleasant for me too.