there's a critter in the attic

[MissMillie]

has been for a while, but I'm not sure it's always the same one

I've told the landlord many times. he says he has put out poison which makes me think there are a lot of dead critters in the attic and new ones keep coming in.

I'm thinking he should find out how they're getting in and close that up

[Midlodemocrat]

1. I think they're in mine, too. Except I technically don't HAVE an attic.

I cannot figure it out. I hear this 'running' on the roof when I'm in my office, but there is not an inch of space for a critter to run in.

It is so weird and it is creeping me out.

[DeepBlueC]

3. crawl spaces of some kind?

There's probably insulation up there and someone had to have room to apply it somehow. There has to be room of some kind because you need to have a cold space under the roof or so I understand from Mike Holmes, the hero of HGTV, and a local boy. Or is construction materially different in Virginia?

[backwoodsbob]

4. call me the next time you hear it.

I'll bring the firepower...you supply the beer.

Nothing says Saturday afternoon quite like guns and beer :)

[Lil Missy]

6. If outside, raccoons. Inside, it's mice,

Seriously, raccoons tore the crap outta my roof.

I got some dipshit on the phone, with Wildlife Services or whatever they were called, and he told me to go throw a couple sticks at them. No further discussion, that's all he could offer. Go throw some sticks.

I was ready to jump in the car and go slap him personally. Fortunately, my little sis has a calmer head. She called back and asked for a manger. He suggested putting moth balls in the gutters and around the ground where they frequented. It worked!

Try putting some moth balls in the gutters.

[DeepBlueC]

2. make sure they are not inside when it is closed up

The vent covers were off in my landlord's big old house (he thought it would air out the crawl spaces better)...raccoons moved in. So my landlord put the covers back on. He figured that since it was spring the raccoons had moved outside. Umm, no, they built a nest and had a family. Grandpa died under the floorboards and set his fleas free. The living did their damnedest to claw and clew their way out. The rich but cheap owner of the multi winged house set his own trap to try to catch "the" raccoon and he set it near the corpse where nothing living wanted to go. It was a clusterfuck.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I had squirrels in my porch roof for awhile.

They chewed a hole in a soffit and ran around in there. They did a lot of damage and creeped me out with their skritching noises, which I could hear in my bedroom at night.

[applegrove]

7. I had mice in my attic space. They sounded as big as squirrels.