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Tapping noises in the wall. What can it be?
My wife and I started to hear a tapping/knocking noise from the wall. It’s pretty loud that it woke us up. It happened every few days in the morning from 6-11am.
Our bedroom is on the ground floor. Above we we have a second floor with an attic and crawl space, and a finished basement with a hanging ceiling below us.
We had an exterminator come out and they said the house was sealed up nicely and didn’t see any droppings except for a few in the crawl space. Traps and bait stations have been placed but nothing has been caught so far.
In the video is the corner of the bedroom and directly above it is the crawl space.
The house is pretty uniform and we started to think that maybe it was a click beetle or the hvac duct. The timing of the noise makes it hard for us to think it’s rodents - aren’t they nocturnal. And the noise happens even when the hvac stops running.
When I hit the wall the noise wouldn’t stop. It’s not really adding up to us.
Any thoughts? How can we escalate or get this fixed faster? Our original pest control wants to wait another two weeks before coming out again.
Discussion
Idk it does sound like some sort of rodent. While test many are active at night, some stay out a little longer.
If it was HVAC, can you correlate the time it’s starting to your AC set to change the temperature?
Have you tried knocking back at it and see what happens?
Maybe a bird some how got in and is trying to get out.
Rodent
Duct work moving?
Ducts moving you'd hear a hammer like sound every time the unit cycles and would be loud enough to wake the dead.
Noise increases with outside noise increase.
The Borrowers……definitely…….
LOL
Ghosts
Poltergeist - you may be too young to remember when that term was popular.
The Man in the Wall. Rap Tap Tap.
We don’t talk about Bru-no-no-no
Sounds like you’ve got a critter in there
Sounds like when I had a rat in the wall chewing drywall. You got some critter in there
What did you do when this happened and how did you catch it? How did you find out this was it? We just had a very exterminator come and he didn’t see any droppings, any signs of entry, anything. He only saw some bite marks on a bait box outside but that’s it, now where else. We’re perplexed 😭
Cut a square out of the drywall found droppings and tunnels in the insulation. Pulled out bottom half on insulation and out in a rat trap with a piece of dogfood hotglued to the trigger so they keep their head in and tug. Screw the dry wall back on when setting the trap and wait until you hear a snap or check daily. Hope you catch whatever it is!
Thank you pickle pants! Appreciate your quick reply and well wishes
Once upon a midnight dreary
Sounds like a rodent either chewing on something or pipes moving, or it could be something underneath
Mousey.
Rats in your wall getting freaaakkkkyyyy
Harry Potter
Mouse or ghost or ghost mouse 👻 🐭
If you hear it in the morning, when it’s light out, please check if you can to see if it is a bird.
How can we check? :( we don’t see any. Although we do get birds general outside and we have heard a lot of bird squawking in the morning somewhat around this time or after we hear this noise.
😈
Jake Tapper?
May be a copper pipe tapping if you have baseboard heating
Been there done that… rodents!
What’s worse is when you kill them via bait they take back to their nests, their rotting little bodies wreak for weeks …
How did you find out you had this? What did you do? Another exterminator just came and did a very very thorough check and couldn’t find any droppings or anything at all 😭😭 just some bite marks on a bait box outside but that’s it. We’re so confused
U got rats dog
Mickey Mouse’s wall resort
Could be a squirrel. I had the same sounds, exterminator sealed holes and after 500(exaggerated) visits it finally stopped
Did you do anything else? We’ve had two exterminators come now and none can find anything and both are saying everything is sealed up nicely. The one who came today was extremely thorough in his checks. When the noises first started I thought to myself it sounded like a squirrel tapping an acorn or nut on the wall and thought it was outside. We’re perplexed 😭
Could it be carpenter ants? Just a thought!
Rats?
The Invisible Rat.
Once I had a squirrel fall down a chimney that only had my water heater vented out it in our basement. Did not know for a long time where that noise was coming from. Finally we smelled toast. Found the dead squirrel crawled through the pipe from the water heater vented in the chimney. Awe! Sad!
I’m wondering if this could be it. We had a crazy storm the night or two before we started hearing noises. Older house and we’ve only lived here a few years so no clue what the situation is with the chimney (no fireplace). Ugh 😭
We had no fireplace but a chimney ran down the side of our house to the ground. 1849 house. They had heated with wood stoves in various rooms that were vented into old chimneys to heat the house back then. So the chimneys remained and were blocked up from the inside.
Rodents
Had a red squirrel in the attic until exterminator got it out. Other possibility something like a branch, loose siding hitting with the wind.
Who can it be now?
Get some peppermint tablets and toss a few in the crawl space in the attic etc. If it stops then it was rats or other vermin. Easy non toxic. It just messes with their noses and they move on.
That does sound all the world like a rat working/gnawing to me. The issue is that the noise can travel quite some distance from where the rat is to where you are hearing it (especially since there's a HVAC register right there which really convey sound). It does take a long time sometimes to find all the entry points as well as for trap shy rats to finally get caught (if they get sealed in then they become more desperate as they look for food). Also, a rat gnawing on the outside of a house (trying to get in) will also transmit into the walls. Look for areas outside the house near crawlspace vents for signs of chewing (paint flakes, wood chips). Sometimes they aren't inside but trying to get in (especially if they smell evidence of past infestations in the crawlspace0>
or greasy areas where they rub against walls.