So, I’m woken up at 2am by scratching. I sighted a marten a couple of times, once it was scratching at window trying to get in.
Now I hear it in the roof. Climbing onto a snow covered roof at 2am was probably not the most sensible thing to do, but after a bit of searching, I located a part of the eaves where a 10cm strip of wood has rotten away and suspect it got in there.
Now it is scratching around in the roof.
Ideas on how to get rid of it?
I guess sealing it while it is in there is not a good idea is it will scratch and may be create another entry point.
Then when is the best time to seal it up once it is gone and how to know it is gone?
We went through this on EF a few years ago. See if you can access that thread–I had posted about an amusing You Tube guy in DE whose business is getting rid of house marders. They breed in summer and look for a place to have their kits in winter, then kit in your attic in early spring. You have to get rid of her before she kits, obviously, because once she does, you can’t do anything to endanger the
youngsters (like locking her out). Once they like a house, they may try to come back year after year.
It was a major battle of wits, but we successfully got rid of one that stood on a beam and chewed into our soffit boards and into an inaccessible part of the attic. I got the idea of stuffing a plastic bag into the hole so that we would know if the animal had gone out. Then I took a baseball bat to the wall backing on the attic space where I could hear scratching. They don’t like noise, but a radio doesn’t work, nor does ultrasound. Did that all times of the day, for days on end. Carefully monitored the bag and finally saw that it had been pushed out. Then closed off the entry with stout boards, and I fabricated and placed a nail-studded board on the rafter she had stood on to chew, so she couldn’t stand there again. We’ve had no more trouble for 4 years. They have amazing climbing ability and can fly through the air for surprising distances. Drainpipes are their specialty, and if left alone they can cause untold damage to insulation and structures. Good luck!
At least in Vaud they are a protected species and you cannot hurt or kill them. We hired an exterminator who stuffed some foul smelling stuff into the hole. He waited for them to leave and then sealed the hole. I was surprised how little it cost, less than f200, IIRK.
We were fortunate as it was this time of the year and the tracks in the snow were like an arrow pointing at the hole.
These guys are nasty. The even managed to shut doen CERN’s large hydron collidor.
Martens are classed huntable animals by federal law, you need a hunting license to catch or kill them, but driving them away is permitted. Says Zürich. Their conservation period lasts from February 16 until August 31, that’ll include your denying return due to the kits.
Using noise for deterrence, some suggest to simply enter the attic regularly and make different types of noise including knocks. If you have family and everybody does it twice a day there’s basically no peace when the marten is inactive and likely to be around.
Yes, this snow was the only way I figured out where to look and even then it took a while to find the hole. I don’t even think what I found is how it gets in, but a kind of emergency exit for the critter.
I’ll check out where some of the other tracks went as I think there’s a place near the drains that he’s getting in.
Constant bashing on the walls is what disturbed our resident during sleepytime in the day…they usually hunt all night. Even after we excluded her, we could set the clock by her shimmying up the drainpipe at 5:15 every morning looking for a way back in. I even put some dents in the attic wall with my trusty baseball bat! Luckily it was a wall with thick layers of wood, so it could take it. They only need 5cm to get in, so you’ll have to look carefully.
We had them for a long while in the attic of our house in Alsace. I thought it was owls or other birds leaving their droppings everywhere and went to significant efforts to bird-proof everything, but to no avail.
Eventually realised what it was, and found a very simple, very effective solution with an ultrasonic pest deterrent. Hundreds of them available online, many are 12V for use in cars, but there are also plenty of 220v plug-in ones.
It was an immediate and permanent fix for us. Yes, it’s still there, still plugged in 24/7, but I don’t think the power usage is significant.
seriously? And didn’t your pijamas … or the lack of them … scare them off already?