25.10.06

The rats in the walls.




I've been living in my new place for less than two weeks now, and I think I might slowly be adjusting to more of a normal human schedule. Ideally, I'd like to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. I've been waking up at two in the afternoon and going to bed at five or six in the morning for a few years now, but now that I'm living with people who are awake during the day and asleep when I get home, I figure it would probably be best if I was able to adjust to a somewhat similar schedule. I've been trying to go to bed much earlier, and when it works I can wake up at around noon, but usually it doesn't work and I just lay there for most of the night. Last night was one of those laying awake nights, but I think I may have gotten to sleep earlier were it not for some animal, possibly living within my walls, making a lot of noise.

I was laying in bed at around 2:30, when I heard a noise coming from the other side of the room. It sounded like it was coming from behind my dresser, or somewhere in that general area.

SCRITCH SCRITCH SRITCH SCRATCH SCRITCH SCRATCH SCRITCH SCRITCH!!!!

I listened to it for a few seconds, wondering if it might be one of my roommates doing something outside of my room. I wasn't entirely awake, so it took me a few moments to realize that it was definitely coming from the other side of the room, and it was probably some kind of animal. I figured there was no way it was something as small as a mouse, because it was fairly loud. I tried to figure out what it could be doing to make that noise, and the only thing I could think of was that it might be trying to chew through the wall, or through my dresser. I turned on the lamp next to my bed and the noise stopped. I walked over to the the dresser and looked behind it, and under it, but couldn't see anything in the dark. I moved around the guitar cases next to the dresser, but couldn't find anything there, either. I turned off the light and tried to sleep again.

SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH SCRITCH SCRITCH!!!!!

The noise started up again a few minutes after I had turned off the light. I turned the light back on and once again the noise stopped. I walked back over to the dresser and moved my guitar cases around. I thought I heard something inside of one, but figured it was probably just the sound of the case rubbing against the wall. In truth, my fear of a bigass rat jumping out at me probably contributed to my unwillingness to open the case. I got back in bed and turned off the light.

SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRITCH SCRATCH SCRITCH!!!!

When I turned on the light the third time, the noise didn't stop. I walked back to the dresser and started moving the guitar cases again, and this time I heard something scurry up the wall. I jumped at the noise heading towards my head, but it was obviously on the other side of the wall. The sound of tiny footsteps disappeared into the ceiling above my head, which is arched to match the top of the house.

I'm really hoping that the mystery creature was actually outside of the house, and not inside of the walls. I'm hopeful that this is the case, because there is already a hole in the wall that the last guy who lived there made so he could run speakers into the next room. If the animal wanted to get into my room, it could just use that hole instead of chewing a new one. As for the sound stopping when I turn on the lights, hopefully it's because the window is only a few feet from where the sound originated, and the light emanating from it frightened the thing into silence.

I guess time may tell what the mystery creature is, and where it is, and what it's doing. I may never hear from the thing again, or I may end up devoured by vermin.

7 comments:

Lew said...

Yeah, man, I have something like that living in my room but I don't think it's a rat, I don't think that at all. I have some theories. It could be a bird. It sounds like it enters and exits the outside walls. It's been coming in and out for a few months. It could be raccons, squirrels, and mice can sound louder than what they are, I don't know if that makes sense.

Anonymous said...

Are you all nuts? all of these pest are serious problems. Rats and squirrels will chew on you wiring, in and out of the house. There scat becomes particalized as they move over it repeatedly and you develope respitory illnesses. birds guana(poop) has the same affect but with very seious health implications. Most house fires that are electrically triggered are due to rodents. Most renters have rights and are protected, you should notify your roommates and landlords in writing via registered return reciept letter. If they do not fix it move and send the notification of leaving siting the reason ans a pest infrestation they neglected to deal with as the reason. Again, registered return receipt only. If you are broke tell your folks you are being forced to live with rodents, they may be inclined to help.
I live in the country and fight the rat/mouse battle constantly. I prefer it to neighbors.

Anonymous said...

Man to all of u guyz, That muthafucka is a got damn rat best and beleave that I live in a envoirment that has rats,roaches,owlz,swans,peigons,Possume's, everything u name it, and its rats because they tunnel there lil dirty asses in from under tha building and start chewing, tryna get there dirty asses into everything and anything that u have so YES those are RATS, they will wake u up out of ya sleep makin all that damn noise and YES they r hella loud when they Chewin thru ya shyt, if you want to kill them buy one of those Posioness smoke bombz for Roaches and set it off but put it under your building, or look for lil holes in your house and duck tape them close.....

Nonhlanhla Mkwanazi said...

Wow, i just moved into a place now too that had this problem. I've taken to tapping closed my air vents cause that's were the nose comes from. Freaks me out of my mind still though. I feel like I'm under attack

Anonymous said...

Fill holes with steel wool if you are worried about them coming into house. We have them in wall behind the bed and they go up through black insulation in garage then through a wiring hole! We are in country and they are big bush rats, which we don't mind but also need our sleep! They are too smart for traps and manage to take cheese out of trigger traps without them going off! Country rats!!! They even put peach seeds in our garage roller doors and the noise drove us mad until we managed to work out that is was not the door just the seeds. Not easy to get them out but we did!

Anonymous said...

Fill holes with steel wool if you are worried about them coming into house. We have them in wall behind the bed and they go up through black insulation in garage then through a wiring hole! We are in country and they are big bush rats, which we don't mind but also need our sleep! They are too smart for traps and manage to take cheese out of trigger traps without them going off! Country rats!!! They even put peach seeds in our garage roller doors and the noise drove us mad until we managed to work out that is was not the door just the seeds. Not easy to get them out but we did!

Anonymous said...

Fill holes with steel wool if you are worried about them coming into house. We have them in wall behind the bed and they go up through black insulation in garage then through a wiring hole! We are in country and they are big bush rats, which we don't mind but also need our sleep! They are too smart for traps and manage to take cheese out of trigger traps without them going off! Country rats!!! They even put peach seeds in our garage roller doors and the noise drove us mad until we managed to work out that is was not the door just the seeds. Not easy to get them out but we did!