There is a little animal under the sitting room windowsill...inside...not outside and he or she chews away happily half the night...I sleep on the settee as you know and the settee is right under the window, so in the middle of night, when it's fairly dark and reasonably quiet, that chewing sounds quite like an enormous rat. I say reasonably dark because the very small light on top of my oxygen condenser is extremely bright when it's dark, and it's reasonably quiet because the same condenser hums happily away to itself...not that I mind actually. It's quite a soothing sort of noise.
I do hope it isn't an enormous rat with sharp teeth and its fur full of fleas that'll one night, in the not too distant future, come right through the wood and pop it's head out...all long whiskers and a twitching nose. Can't be doing with rats and their nasty hairless tails and yellowish teeth...can't abide their squeaking and quarrelling...
For reasons best forgotten about we never did replace the wooden window sills except for the one in the bathroom...there was a zoo underneath that rotten wood...hundreds of woodlice dashing about and those strange little silver fish...there were centipedes as well and millions of spiders...well...perhaps not actually millions. No evidence of mouses or rats though.
Trying to keep rodents out of old cottages is almost an impossible task...the stone walls are a haven for them. They were built with a gap between the inner and the outer wall you see...then the gap was filled with small stones and wads of horse-hair...like a rudimentary form of insulation. Some cottages even have wodges of old clothing and blankets in the space between the walls...they simply disintegrate should you come across them during any building work.
If you were to walk around the outside of our cottage, you'd find numerous tiny gaps at ground level where the old layers of lime have long worn away...I'm presuming it's through those small holes that the mouses come in...especially in the winter months when it's cold and frosty.
Visit any of the neighbours in our street and you'll see mouse traps placed alongside walls in kitchens and hallways...beside the ranges and the cookers...almost out of sight behind the 'fridge...sometimes baited with a lethal poison...others with a bit of chocolate or peanut butter...
All food is kept in plastic containers...crumbs are swept up and thrown out for the birds...but still those tell-tale tiny black droppings appear...and still we hear the quick pitter patter overhead in the evenings as they charge about in the roof space and I lie there half asleep and listen to the sound of enthusiastic gnawing under the wooden window sill.
I think little mice are cute,not sure I could sleep knowing they were so close though Lol as for Rats yuck no way.l
We had mice in a garden shed once we tried trapping them so we could set them free in the fields near by,but they would not go into the cage,hubby set a trap and caught a mouse,I said I did not want to see or know about it,just wish it had gone into the trap so it could be set free.
The thought of rats that close would unnerve me! I am not too keen on mice in the house either I get woken in the morning by a tapping on our landing window, a blackbird who brings her breakfast to eat on the cill. We cannot open that window or she comes in and makes an awful mess. Regurgitated berries stain terribly!
I have a nest of rats in the rockery under the bird feeding station, now that Rex is no longer around they are becoming more daring, one of them was hanging off the fatballs and I have taken a few shots at them from the bedroom window with the air rifle, I felt like I couldn't breathe and aim and fire at the same time! its just the thought of viles disease eeeek!
Hi redted, is your exterminator a terrier by any chance? I would like a good ratter living out here, I was thinking of getting some chickens, would they be after them do you reckon?
Yes,Lady is brilliant ratter,she is always killing her soft toys then rolling on them,I don't think anything furry or feathery is safe unless they dogs are bought up with them. Yet both my terrorists are gentle souls.
I don't mind a little mouse....but I don't like rats. We had them under the decking in the garden once....ewwww!
Get a cat vashti as they will make short work of any mouses or rats. Did you know if you put wire wool (like Brillo pads) in the gaps they can't chew through them? xx
Aww, at last someone else who likes rats! I've also kept domestic rats and they make loveable, and interesting pets. They are also very clean little animals that keep their home tidy, and with early training, are easy to handle.
Hey Vashti, having also lived in old property in the countryside I can imagine you'd have quite a variety of wildlife around you. That's the upside of course. I once had a mouse that lived on the patio behind some ivy. It wasn't a house mouse but a long-tailed field mouse and in the evenings it would venture out and drink from a ground level water feature intended for the birds and the many hedgehogs that visited. Even though the patio light was on it would also climb onto the bird table and take peanuts from the feeder before dashing home with the goodies. I'd like to think that when I moved she would still be safe.
At my pet shop their are more people that have pet rats than any other pets. They walk around with them on their shoulder. Do you do that ? Rats are very social and smart.
people don't realize what a good pet they are.I like most of Gods little creatures. Squirrel s are also very smart. I know several people that feed them out of their hands.
That was quite a while back Ruby and all my rats were well loved and cared for. Yes, I handled them every day and the'd sit on my shoulder or on my lap.
As an animal lover there isn't any animal I could dislike. I believe we're all part of a chain and are here for a reason. If an animal isn't loved it can at least be respected.
Do you have red, or grey squirrels out there? I do know that they can all be entertaining to watch, if a little destructive in some cases! Lovelight xx
We had had little mice with clogs on going clip cliperty clop on the stairs.
Seriously we had mice in our loft some years ago, they used to keep us awake at night so we put a camera up there and attached it to the TV in the bedroom, you could see the mice running around and playing up there.
We bought battery operated mouse and rat repeller which we put in the loft and we have not been bother with them since.
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I get woken in the morning by a tapping on our landing window, a blackbird who brings her breakfast to eat on the cill. We cannot open that window or she comes in and makes an awful mess. Regurgitated berries stain terribly!
its just the thought of viles disease eeeek! 
Old Stone Walls And Ripe Damsons...And being Lucky...
