I am disconcerted by a strange tapping noise which has started up in my house. It occurs in one corner of one room, and appears to come from (or from under) the floorboards. It's quite distinct, and sounds like the sort of noise you'd make by tapping something small and hard or sharp, like a gravel fragment or a needle, against the floorboard. It lasts for between about 30 seconds and a couple of minutes, then stops for a while, then starts again. The rate of tapping is usually at intervals of a second or so, but that varies as well, and sometimes the rate is noticeably quicker - 2-3 times a second. The first tap in a sequence is nearly always louder than those following.

What does the fervent imagination and experience of the collective Mudcat mind make of this?

This, by the way, is Manchester UK, so I doubt if it's termites, unless very brave, foolhardy or hopelessly lost termites. I don't have any pets.

The tapping started last Friday, 17th October. The floorboards have been stripped and varnished but that was about six years ago, and they've been exposed ever since, so nothing has happened recently to change their condition.

The house is old-ish (1897), and I suspect the floorboards are the originals. The void under the boards is about 18 inches deep, and the floor of the void is just earth and old rubble.

It's bloody irritating, I can tell you, and I want it stopped!

The only noise I've ever come across like it was years ago, at an ex-girlfriend's house. It took her ages to pinpoint the source of the noise, and it spooked her badly. So badly, I'm afraid, that when she finally found the cause - a stag beetle - it scared her to death, and she drowned the wretched thing in polyurethane lacquer.

I've never seen a stag beetle in this neck of the woods, but if the source of my own tapping torment is made of flesh and blood (with or without exo-skeleton), I'd really rather not drown it. I just want it to shut the **** up!

What can it be?