Awful scratching noise under the sink freaking me out

[Anonymous]

Think of him as Remy. Cute and harmless. He wants to be a chef. Ratatouille dreams.

[Anonymous]

OP back. An exterminator is coming this afternoon. I'm not a fan of mice, but a rat is so completely unnerving.

I had been concerned about mice because there's a teardown next door, which is a huge pain in so many ways. But rats?! That makes me hate the house that soon will be towering over mine even more.

[Anonymous]

OP again. I already had poison bait station in the crawl space. I guess that wasn't enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back. An exterminator is coming this afternoon. I'm not a fan of mice, but a rat is so completely unnerving.

I had been concerned about mice because there's a teardown next door, which is a huge pain in so many ways. But rats?! That makes me hate the house that soon will be towering over mine even more.

Teardown=rat city

We had that. Luckily ours were all outside but still, totally gross and scary. We got a great pest control company that set traps aggressively after we noticed a lot of nocturnal action and droppings on our gas fireplace vent. The pest guys come out frequently the first few weeks and move traps around as they study the situation, and then they come quarterly. They caught the one we now think of as Grandpa Rat in week 2. DH only saw the tail but said it was easily >12” long, which I found impossible and terrifying even after decades of NYC rat interactions. Anyway, after Grandpa Rat got caught they caught one smaller one and that was it. We think he was running the show for that colony and they scattered after his death. We’ve kept the service going for 4 years now with no other recent deaths and no evidence.

[Anonymous]

What happened OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened OP?

The creature got to OP.

[Anonymous]

What was it? Did it get the OP? I’m worried 😟

[Anonymous]

Welfare check?

[Anonymous]

It’s definitely a ghost. These old, east coast homes are super haunted.

[Anonymous]

If it’s a rat, try catching it and putting it under your hat. See if your cooking improves, maybe open up a critically acclaimed restaurant and enjoy your new fame and fortune.

[Anonymous]

OP back. The exterminator came out on Monday didn’t see any droppings or gnawing signs under the sink or elsewhere. He put out more traps and checked the crawlspace, but he didn’t see any signs down there either and none of that poison bait had been eaten.

I was hoping somehow whatever it was had just left. Of course, I’m not so lucky and now I’m hearing noises in the walls.

I feel like the exterminator has been pretty nonchalant about this. It’s a place that I have a contract with since I’ve had mice several times over the years. I honestly don’t know what to do at this point. I’m not sure where they’re coming in since things are fairly sealed up. And there’s nothing I can do about the horrible tear down next-door.

[Anonymous]

OP - glad you're okay! 😅

Maybe do an audio recording of the sound next time you hear it, might help the exterminator figure out what it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - glad you're okay! 😅

Maybe do an audio recording of the sound next time you hear it, might help the exterminator figure out what it is?

OP again. Thanks, just sleep deprived at the moment. And kind of mad because the pest company says it has no availability for an entire week. So if anyone has been happy with their company for rodent control in the DMV please recommend. I have a contract with the one I'm using but they seem less than helpful right now.

[Anonymous]

OP don’t have a dishwasher right next to the sink? We had the exact situation and it turned out a rat had entered in the basement and somehow followed up some type of line to get to the dishwasher and was running up there at night hand gnawing on stuff under/behind the dishwasher and going in the fluffy insulation around the dishwasher. We had a contract w/ Connor’s (now Ehrlich) and they did a great job of figuring it out. They pulled out the dishwasher and found it. Left the dishwasher out and put a bunch of giant snap traps and caught that night and came back in the am to remove. Then they were able to find the entry point in the basement and filled it in and blocked all holes inside the island too. Disgusting but I was impressed w/ their service.

[Anonymous]

Ironically, Ehrlich is the company I'm now using and can't come out for a whole week.

The dishwasher is next to the sink so it's definitely something to look into.