We have a fur ball in the attic/roof that runs around doing circus tricks in the night wearing DMs. We have bought the sprays & repellents in Landi. It didn't touch the poison & anyway I was having nightmares about dead bodies up there.
Today we found a highly entertaining gadget called a StriimLight . There's a light socket up there but not an electric socket. So the day was spent fiddling with Iphones, Ipads etc. We now have it set up to blast out Irish music at the touch of a button anywhere in the house & the light can be switched on & off too without even going up there. Once the beast has moved out, we'll put it in the basement where the kids have their mates to stay.
It is quite amazing the advances in technology & the things they come up with.
At my last, old house, I slept right under the sloping roof and at this time of year and into the winter there was always loads of scratching and scampering sounds about 50cm above my head.
Marders? ..... mice? ..... could have easily have been either - and lots of them.
In the end, I was more or less convinced it was birds (probably sparrows), that had found a gap by the protruding roof beam and were sheltering out of the cold ..... I may have been wrong, though.
If it is marders, they hate dogs. If you can, gather as much dog hair as you can and stuff it into the holes where you think they're getting in and out and keep doing it.
Don't use poison, though - no need to kill the little cuties.
Yes, Marder. It's a she as that is what moves in to houses. We had a bug man come round in the summer for wasps & he said there was evidence of a marder. He put wire stuff over but it has obviously found another way in. We also tried some Swiss music (Worry Blast) & Bon Jovi.
Definitely not birds or mice. It's heavier than that.
I bought from my local garage a small device for the car engine that gives a wave frequency weasels cannot stand and therefore prevents them from chewing at your car brakes cables.
I assume you could simply put one of these in your attic for a few days. You won't hear it, but they will!
Also, you should feel elevated...Louis XIV had weasels especially brought in Versailles Palace attics because they killed all the rats! You have a royal furry friend up there!
Yes, there's poo on the floor & the fiberglass insulation reeks of urine. It is not pleasant. We'll have to have the whole lot redone but are planning an extension so until that can be done, the attic is very unpleasant. I imagine the king had a lot of servants to clean up after them.
For the moment glowjupiter seems to be right. The bugg*r takes no notice of the spray or pellet repellent stuff from the garden center & must like the disco. It was running around at 4am. OH put the music & light on up there (which I did not appreciate). Now he’s ordered one of these ...
Everybody under 30-35 (who have not killed their ears with "music" yet) will still hear those devices. Horrible, horrible stuffs, making poor gollum jump in fright when walking past cars.
After a busy day catching up on paperwork and clearing out the cellar (now with the trendy title of "downsizing"), I have rewarded myself with a project on the names of these charming little beasts. So, get out the popcorn and relax - here we go:
The villain of this piece is the "Steinmarder", which is a "beech marten" in English and "fouine" in French. This is the one that damages cars and has discos in lofts. The UK does not have these very cute little beasts.
Its close cousin is the "Baummarder" or "Edelmarder", which is "pine marten" in English, and "martre" in French.
Their relative "Iltis" (Ratz/Stanker) is "polecat" in English and "putois" in French. Persecuted and given numerous horrid names everywhere, due to the harm it inflicts on game.
The "Frettchen" or "Frett" is the "ferret", a domesticated polecat, which is "furet" in French.
Now that's sorted, we can all go back to doing other stuff .
Update - the repellent doesn't work. The trap does but have to be patient. The creature is now making a new nest in the forest. It was surprisingly large when it jumped out & ran away.
I hope you released it a fair distance into the forest and far away from any outdoor residential parking. Infernal pests. One of the few things about Switzerland that really annoy me.