Rodents…entirely in the walls???
Hi everyone.
I have a rodent problem I don’t understand.
I traveled on and off a lot this summer. Following my first 3 weeks away I came home to evidence of one mouse in just one small corner of my kitchen. Yes, I know, there’s never just one—but I only had one coming out and pooping/chewing things on one corner of my counter. I caught that single mouse. No more chewing or poop.
After my second long trip away I came home to EXTREMELY LOUD gnawing and squeaking sounds in the evening under my kitchen sink—but, no poop! Nothing chewed! Anywhere! Could not figure out where they were.
After a few days the noises went away. That was two weeks ago. Last night I finally saw something poking out from under the cabinet, where upon later inspection, I found a hole. It did not come entirely out though—just saw a dark thing poking out and around for thirty or so seconds, then it disappeared again.
Definitely something, probably mice, is living…somewhere in my walls/floors/behind cabinets….BUT they are not entering my kitchen and eating things and pooping everywhere, even though due to a busted hot water heater (sigh) my kitchen is not super clean right now. I have placed traps around there and got nothing.
What the heck is going on? Why aren’t they coming in? Could it be another bigger animal that can’t actually fit its whole body through the hole but is living in there anyway? Why are they even in there, if they’re not eating everything in my cabinets? I can plug the hole, but how do I get rid of the critters in my walls if they’re not coming inside and I can’t even really figure out where they are?
i don’t want to pay someone to just say, You have rodents in your walls, plug the hole, set traps—I can do all that on my own.
Any wisdom, insights, advice, magic-rodent-ridding spells would be deeply appreciated.
Parent Replies
They are likely coming in from either your attic or (if you have one) your basement/crawlspace. You need to get into both spaces and seal everything up (and yes, that may trap them in the walls, which is a pain but a necessary evil to get it over with). If you are handy and have accessible spaces, you can crawl up and seal everything yourself, but we opted to pay to have this done (spoiler: it isn't cheap!) We also had to have our contaminated attic insulation replaced. I will say we thought we had a single rat trapped in the wall (along with rat mites, which are really awful and itchy to deal with). We had a service come in and thoroughly seal everything up, and then have us set and monitor traps to catch the stragglers who had been trapped inside the house with no exit. We caught nine in the week after they finished, not including the one who stayed trapped in the wall and met his demise--!! Moral of the story: there's never just one. And despite the price tag, it was worth it for me to have someone else deal with it--they had a three-man crew working for a solid day to get everything sealed and all of the contaminated insulation properly disposed of and replaced, and then guaranteed everything for the following year. We are avid DIYers, but that was one project I was happy to outsource.
I had rats (yes big giant city rats) in my walls. TWICE, in different houses. Once they were living in the foundation, once they were in the attic. No, we didn’t see them running around inside, but nevertheless they were there. Often they feed outside and only come in to live in your house, so you’ll want to find out where they are entering your house and seal their access. As for catching them, find a crawl space or larger hole and place a trap inside that hole. Or climb into your attic (or basement) and lay the traps there. Just be warned if you do this, go and check the traps often. We had one rat die over a long weekend when the weather went over 100F and the whole house stunk unbearably when we returned. I recommend also to hire someone for this, you can DIY but it’s just nasty doing it yourself.