Lofts emptied and insulated

Two days (over 2 weekends), many trips to the tip, 3 to B&Q and 2 to Colden Common - and we now have both lofts free of rat/mouse poo, free of stuff left by previous owners and beautifully insulated.


Exciting discoveries:

• 3M protective suits have a blue triangle on the back for no readily apparent reason.
• The plumbers removed the old cold water tank (platform still visible).
• New glass fibre insulation was much less horrid to handle than the old yellow stuff we put up in the old house's loft.  Phil still suited up though to prevent irritation.
• Most mouse poo found in rolled up old green carpet.
• Advice was correct - bread knives are the perfect insulation cutting & shaping device.
• Previous owners had his & her lofts!  And didn't get around to emptying either....
• Manual Singer Sewing machine circa 1936.
• Slide viewer, very solid looking, with rat chew marks on the box.
• Project completed by previous owners daughters on "Sledge dogs of Antarctica" with touching patriotic conclusion.  And recently as "resently" - but as findings included year books from Southampton Medical School, I guess this didn't hold her back in life.
• Photos, photo albums, Christmas decorations - returned to previous owners, requiring drives to Colden Common.

Bait Update

Mouse levels in loft above back bedroom & rat levels at the bottom of the back garden.  Still no internal rat bait take which is fantastic - and none in the front garden!  I'm not overly worried about the garden take as it's not unreasonable & exactly where we would expect to find the lovely furry animals.

Rat Staircase Removed

The prickly shrubby climbing thing, acting as a potential rat/mouse staircase all the way up our front wall is no more. 
I got back from work earlier than expected to find Husband had managed to remove it - a big job for one person! 
We then removed the hedging that's right up against the house for the same reason, bagged it up to take to the tip.  The latter was hampered by being unable to find the secateurs - had to use a tree lopper instead!  3 car loads.....
I was curious how the front of the house would look without it - and it has definitely smartened it up.

Squatters

Our home’s previous human inhabitants were late in moving out – but we’ve discovered some squatters too.  The house was sprayed for carpet moth today (loads munching through all things wool with the porch and hall as the epicentre) by a pest control company. 

But whilst getting odds of carpet out of the loft for disposal, Husband found rat & mouse droppings.  The advantage of finding these whilst the pest expert was present meant that bait could be laid straight away!  This does mean though that:

• Can’t hoover properly for 4 weeks due to the moth treatment.
• We must vermin proof the house as much as possible.  This changes the “things to do” list considerably!

To give a bit of perspective, the house does back onto a meadow – and from there to farmland – so rats aren’t really unexpected.