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AncientHouse
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Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Critter trapped in the walls
11/14/05 12:54 PM
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Hi there,
Since it's starting to get cold we went around the exterior of the house and spray foamed any holes. On the 2nd floor there was a fair sized hole that we filled. Unfortunately, we must have trapped something inside. Now on the 2nd floor in between the floor and the 1st floor ceiling there is a scratching at night. It's always in the same place (near the linen closet). It's been over a week. I would have thought it was too long for it to be trapped and still live. We have bats in the eaves and outer part of the attic but this noise is different. More of a scratching and much louder that it wakes you from a deep sleep.
Any ideas or has anyone else trapped a critter in. We figure it is probably a squirrel or a mouse because sometimes we'll hear it run but it always ends up at the same place scratching.
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egon
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/14/05 02:24 PM
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Chances are when the scratching stops you will have an obnoxious odour permeate one or more rooms!
Egon
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AncientHouse
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Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: egon]
11/14/05 02:31 PM
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That's what I'm afraid of. There is actually an opening on the other side of the attic where the bats get out but it would have to find it's way there. The only other way would be to cut a part of the drywall in my kitchen ceiling but I don't think my husband likes the idea of having to patch it especially because the critter will probably run to another area. 
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NSbound
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/14/05 04:08 PM
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I had a similar situation and it ended up being squirrels. I called in a critter removal specialist and he re-opened the hole we surmised they were using and installed a "one-way" doorway-gate thing. It was made out of a wire mesh that would allow the squirrel to squeeze out but going in, it would poke him and he wouldn't go in. A few days later we re-sealed the hole and he was gone!  Finally, was able to sleep through without the middle-of-the-night scratching!!
Ian M.
Transferred to Nova Scotia, making plans to retire as soon as the economy lets me!
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rozett
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/14/05 07:39 PM
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We have a 200 year-old house and we have this problem every winter. I'm sure these critters have been coming into the house for many generations. I have caught them a few times. I occasionally catch a mouse, but it's been mostly Eastern Flying Squirrels. I catch them in a wire trap and take them about a mile away and let them go.
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AncientHouse
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Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: NSbound]
11/15/05 10:49 AM
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I put spray foam inside the opening. Would I use a drill to make the hole again through the foam or scrap it? I've always put foam in, haven't had to remove it. But I would definitely rather have it leave instead of have it die. It took long enough to get on the roof to seal now having to undo. Darn critters
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MarineJAG
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/15/05 11:20 AM
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Since it's now the cold season... he (it) may not want to leave if you re-open the hole... in fact he may invite his friends!
- William
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egon
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/16/05 05:56 AM
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Think I'd open the access hole till the scratching stops.
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: egon]
11/16/05 04:17 PM
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Before I retired I spent a couple years in a building that was built as a temporary structure during WW II. ONe day when I went in to our office complex I noticed considerable general messiness. Blinds of one of the tech writers were all akimbo and askew. Various folks had their desktops mussed. I figured it out.
The network guys were stringing cables in the overhead above 2x4 foot drop ceiling tiles. They left one partilly open where they were working on a Friday afternoon. We discoverd the mess on Monday morning. I found coon tracks in my office up a wall where Mr. Coon was exploring for an exit. Seems the coon had a hole in the wall out back where he came and went at will. Apparently he was walking around on top of the ceiling tiles and when he came to the partially open one it tilted and deposited him on the floor of our area.
I plugged the hole, and that as they say was that. The CO (Navy captain, equivalent of an army colonel) was amused when I showed him the paw prints on my wall.
 Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Bird
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/16/05 05:10 PM
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For a number of years my parents spent the summers in Ardmore, OK, in a house that was built in the early '20s, and spent the winters at Port Aransas, TX. Each Fall they simply locked up the house in Ardmore. The only attic vent for the house was an approx. 2' x 3' door or window on each end of the house. Dad always left those open in the summer and closed them before going south for the winter. But one Fall he forgot to close them. When they returned in the Spring, they found a squirrel had gnawed through a ceiling tile, fallen into the house, and obviously died of starvation.
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MarineJAG
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/16/05 05:49 PM
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Great story!
- William
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Pat
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Bird]
11/16/05 09:18 PM
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Bird, The similarities just keep going on and on and on and...
A couple friends came over this evening to watch "National Treasure" with Nickolas Cage and bring us some fresh home made fried pear pies. They are currently suffering the unwanted attention of a wood pecker that is making his second hole in their siding right through to the fiberglass insulation. It is about to have an accident of the .410 variety. since filling the hole only encourages it to start a new one.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Pat
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: MarineJAG]
11/16/05 09:27 PM
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William, That coon had a system. The back of the building had been used by someone with a fume hood or dust collector or something which required a duct out of a hole in the wall. The duct was gone and the hole in the wall was just left as was. This wall was under cover by a patio roof so it did't rain in and it WAS San Diego so having a big hole in the wall was not a big deal. There was a large pipe rack under the hole. Apparently the coon jumped up and did some uneven parallel bar work to get in position to jump at the hole. Judging from the claw marks under the hole he woiuld catch the hole with his front paws and then scramble to get his backside in the hole. Once inside the wall he could go up and get on top of the drop ceiling By the looks of the scratches under the hole he had been at this for quite a while.
This was more of an encounter than we usually had with wild beasts. Mostly we had mice under the raised floors which had to be trapped to prevent their eating the computer cables.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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AncientHouse
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/17/05 12:41 PM
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Great stories. It looks like our critter has moved from his one scratching spot. My husband heard it run across the downstairs ceiling. How do they survive so long? Do they have a stash of food somewhere? Haven't seen any sign of something in the house and there is no stench so it's definitely alive. I'm still hoping it finds it's way back to the attic and leaves. We don't have baseboards or trim on the house yet but we've spray foams where the floor hits the wall on the second floor and also the spaces between the doors. This was done months ago when the bats were getting into the house from the attic and we haven't had one in the house since. Now we need to do the foam in the main floor where the wall hits the floor just in case this is a mouse that can squeeze itself down the wall and out the space near the floor. But I guess if he made it out it would be easier to catch. Maybe borrow a friend's cat.  It's always a problem solving adventure in the country.
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Bird
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/17/05 01:43 PM
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Maybe you don't have a critter trapped. Maybe the house is just haunted. My parents bought a big old 2-story house in '56 that was surrounded by big pecan trees. At night, we could sometimes hear what sounded like a small animal scampering around in the attic; other times it sounded like a man's footsteps. And in 9 years we never found the source of the sound; no place for squirrels or other small animals to get into the attic, no tree limbs close enough to ever touch the house. After awhile we just got used to the sounds and ignored them. 
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AncientHouse
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Bird]
11/17/05 02:00 PM
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It's funny because of the house being 140 yrs old, my husband and daughter used to joke about it being haunted because they kept losing things that they insisted they put right there but it ended up that they are just really bad about putting things back where they found them.  Definitely feel it's of this world.
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MarineJAG
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/17/05 02:27 PM
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That coon sounds like it was a real character... don't doubt it at all though. I only learned last year (after having lost numerous chickens in NC) that coons kill more chickens than foxs do...
- William
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: AncientHouse]
11/17/05 04:38 PM
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In reply to:
it ended up that they are just really bad about putting things back where they found them
No, no, I think your husband and daughter were right; personal experience . . . I've had gremlinss swipe or move stuff around in my shop lots of times.
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chrisjbell
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Bird]
11/17/05 06:51 PM
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I've had gremlinss swipe or move stuff around in my shop lots of times.
Me, too. I'm pretty sure they are related to the critters that either steal all of my clothes hangers - except for the times that they bring extras.
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egon
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: chrisjbell]
11/18/05 06:55 AM
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I'd just like to get ahold of that spare sock GREMLIN for several seconds.
Egon
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rozett
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: chrisjbell]
11/18/05 10:58 AM
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In reply to:
Me, too. I'm pretty sure they are related to the critters that either steal all of my clothes hangers - except for the times that they bring extras.
And I'm sure the critter goes into the clothes dryer every night and steals one sock. If we could only find his/her hiding place, we could find the mates to all those extra socks in the drawer.
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Pat
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: rozett]
11/18/05 10:07 PM
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OK, I don't usually let this info out to just anyone but... Here is the deal with missing socks and extra wire hangers showing up out of nowhere...
The rotary motion of the dryer in an electric field during certain magnetic resonances brought about by solar wind and cosmic rays creates a distortion of the fabric of the space-time continuum and for a brief moment creates a situation that for a brief instant is the begining of the formulation of a small wormhole. During this instant in time, as perceived from our inertial frame of referrence (see Einstein's general theory, not special theory and also Der Relativitates Teory dem Max Plank) the sock ceases to exist in our universe and an equivalency (energy wise, E = mc * mc) of wire coathengers is formed nearby using of course preexisting wire coathangers as spatial-temporal templates.
No ghosts no haunting just straight forward moderm physics.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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MarineJAG
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/19/05 06:46 AM
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That's what I always thought!
- William
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/20/05 07:42 AM
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I must have slept through that class in college.
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egon
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Re: Critter trapped in the walls
[re: Pat]
11/20/05 10:24 AM
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The extra wire coat hangers will point to finite start of the worm hole if held correctly.
Egon
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