What's in my attic?

There's something nesting in the floor of my unfinished attic (in MA). Late at night I hear sounds, but not from the same place - it can move several feet if I bang on the ceiling (so not an insect nest) but the banging doesn't scare it away. There's occasionally a scratching sound (suggesting mice) but more often a sort of buzzing (sort of like a "rasberry") which is most frequent. What's up there? The section of attic it's in has a very low roof (shallow roofline), no floor, and 8" of fiberglas insulation. So very hard to get to. Mice bait did no good, am considering ultrasonic, although, won't the fiberglas kill it soon? Could it damage the joists?

any thoughts -thanks!
/j

 

Guessing a raccoon (or 2 or 3)....they make sort of a buzzing sound.

 

Thanks - I was leaning that way too. Wife is out with binoculars looking for a access hole, and I'm going to pick up an ultrasonic thingie on the way home.

 

Don't waste your money on any thingy....call a skinny pest control specialist.

 

Yep, call somebody and find and plug that hole

Raccoons can get nasty

 

Forget the ultrasonic thing, it's a gimmick. Fiberglass won't do anything to it. Raccoons do make odd noises/sounds. I'm not aware that raccoons, opossums, etc are chewers as are rodents, squirrels. Can you at least get your head/shoulders into the attic so you can smell for urine, musk, fecal odors, etc? Larger animals will make these smells fast. Outside look for dark spots at possible entry points, runways, etc that would be made by body oils deposited from repetitive behavior.
Whatever is in there needs to enter/exit on a regular basis.

 

Turns out to be the mother of all hornets nests. Or something that looks and sounds a lot like hornets but likes to eat wood (I can see where they've eaten away a little of a piece of wood that reinforces a joist). I can't quite get the Raid spray all the way to the next but I've sprayed near it and hung a couple of no-pest strips over it. Hopefully they'll get annoyed and leave. Activity is certainly down....

 

hello - i live in a relatively suburban area (outskirts of city growing over previous farmland). Fortunately, I have not seen huge wasp/hornets nests that you seem to have seen...

but please do give us an update and how you exactly built the courage to climb up there to try to spray and hang pest-strips around it without fear of getting attacked by a swarm.

Good luck with the extermination!

 

one thing worth mentioning. I thought I had mice in the attic in my previous condo. the scratching sound was heard at different times of the day but it sounded loud enough to be a small mouse or something. sometimes I thought it was a jumping sound etc. tried to set up mouse traps which didn't work.

well i finally called a nuisance wildlife guy to check it out and it was a huge carpenter ant nest. there was a leak around my chimney flashing which was causing wood to rot and then attracting all the carpenter ants.

I didn't have signs of carpenter ants in the house so I never would have expected it. When they chew on wood or insulation it can be very loud if you have a significant colony.