Have I got lodgers?

[DforDave]

I need your help to convince my wife we haven't got ghosts!

A couple of months ago our telephones stopped working. I tracked the problem down to a broken extension lead that ran from the main BT socket (upstairs in my office) to the cordless base station in the kitchen below. The lead was broken very cleanly with what looked like a diagonal cut. This cut was inside a boxed-in section at kitchen ceiling level - the boxing covers some central heating pipes and other cables (such as hi-fi speaker leads). I couldn't work out how it got cut - there are no sharp edges near it, it hadn't melted and no-one could have reached it to cut or break it. I thought it must have been chewed by something but it looked too clean and I could find no signs of any "visitors".

A week ago my wife discovered that the top of a washing-up liquid bottle under the kitched sink (below where the cable had been broken) had been chewed by something - there was not much of the top left, just a lot of plastic "crumbs" round the bottle. Again, no signs of visitor droppings, but I put down some poison and a trap just in case.

On Friday our phones packed up again. I checked the cable and it had been broken in exactly the same place and manner as the previous one ! This time it was not cut so cleanly though. I had thrown the first cable away, but this time I have taken some photos...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/Dfordave/Phonecable1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/Dfordave/Phonecable2.jpg

I hope these links work. I have replaced the extension lead again, this time running it inside some trunking. I still can't find any signs of animals though, the poison hasn't been disturbed and the trap is empty, but I am concerned that if something is chewing this cable it might move on to a power cable and cause more serious problems.

Any ideas what could be causing the problem ? I need some plausible explanations to convince my wife that we haven't got ghosts and don't need to move. Won't be easy though - she believes in things like that.

 

[nstreet]

More than likely a house mouse. Can't see why a ghost would chew the washing up bottle when he/she could have a bowl of cereal instead.

 

[breezer]

i hate to say it but i think you have rats or mice.

What have you put on the trap as bait? (a slice of mars bar works very well, i know this from expeaiance)

also have you got rat traps, not mouse traps? (rat trap being bigger)

may i also suggest the following

rats / mice will gnaw through anything in thier way
They stay close to walls
one trap will not do
poison is of no use (some poisons will NOT kill)
If you do have the killing poison it will casue the rodent a slow death, it crawls away, and dies, months later you wonder where the smell / flies are coming from

Go and buy at least 3 more rat traps put them at the top and bottom of the entrance /exit to the ducting is.

Put them opposite each other and side to side (this way which ever direction the rodent comes from it will pass the right way to a trap.)

We had a rat get into our house once, it gnawed trough some data cables to get in then under the floor and up into the house. At first i thought some scumbag had cut the cables

We soon found which way the rat was coming and i laid several rat traps "nose to tail" right across the length of the space (about 14 traps in all) but we got him.

good luck

and for thos that want to see, yes i do have a picture, but its not for the squeamish

 

[planenut]

DforDave, you've got a ghost !

 

[Thermo]

wha wha wha Vermin Fawlty, a dirty great rat!

 

[pipme]

Deffo Ghost .... £5k to take the problem house off your hands, pay me on the monthly I do not mind !!

Most probably the problem is as already suggested.
My daughter's Hamster once escaped, chewed the electrical flex which had temporarily repaired it's cage, wire n'all into little bits ... chewed carpets in corners behind wardrobes .. But most significantly, came back to our food 'lure' packed it's jowels, and then depositied little food caches in out of the way places along the run twixt food and new carpet wool nest .. Luckily could not get under floor, or more likely just didn't bother !

 

[AdamW]

Best way to get rid of rats and mice is a cat or a small dog (terriers are good to get rats, I believe).

It is weird that you have such a neat diagonal cut though! Perhaps you should get Yvette Fielding and her lot in (although "Most Haunted" has emotionally scared me - you should never hear the Blue Peter presenter you had as a kid say the word "f**k" )

 

[2scoops0406]

Best way to get rid of rats and mice is a cat or a small dog (terriers are good to get rats, I believe).

It is weird that you have such a neat diagonal cut though! Perhaps you should get Yvette Fielding and her lot in (although "Most Haunted" has emotionally scared me - you should never hear the Blue Peter presenter you had as a kid say the word "f**k" )

Scared or scarred

 

[AdamW]

Both

 

[DforDave]

Thanks for the responses (I think ).

If it is a mouse or rat it must be well and truly constipated cos I can find no trace of where it has been.

 

[oilman]

...........had temporarily repaired it's cage, ............

Someone's got a clever hamster.

 

[nstreet]

Thanks for the responses (I think ).

If it is a mouse or rat it must be well and truly constipated cos I can find no trace of where it has been.

Maybe it's been toilet trained and flushes afterwards.

 

[pipme]

How did 'it' gain entry ?
If not obvious, possible rainwater discharge pipes, to roofspace ?

 

[DforDave]

How did 'it' gain entry ?
If not obvious, possible rainwater discharge pipes, to roofspace ?

That's the only way I can see. We live in a bungalow (originally an old farm cottage) in a rural area and part of the loft area has been converted into a single room that I use as an office. The broken cable ran through the old roofspace then through the kitchen ceiling. It was separated at about the point it goes through the plaster board ceiling. This is only a few inches from the nearest facia board/soffit. There is 100 metres of guttering and I guess there are lots of places "IT" (or "THEY" ) could have got in.

I am going to look for somewhere selling traps when I finish tomorrow's job

 

[DforDave]

I was kind of hoping someone would suggest it is a squirrel. I know they can be viscious things but I think I prefer them to rats