Upon moving to our first "older house" in the city, we soon learned that rodents (rats) could sometimes enter the house through the crawl space and then migrate to the attic (perfect nesting area)through the walls (lots of room between the exterior and plaster and the metal wire is perfect for climbing). After evicting a gang of squirrels the following Spring, I became more attuned to the problem.

The next fall, I placed a trap in the crawl space below what I thought was an express route to the attic.

One night, I awoke to a scratching sound in the wall. Amazingly frustrated, I left my bed and went to investigate. Sure enough, I could hear "something" in one of the walls downstairs, close to the express route. I figured if I banged on the wall, I could startle the intruder into my carefully laid trap.

So I did. I banged the hell out of the wall and then waited quietly. I could still hear a tap, tap, tap near the window. So I beat the hell out of the wall again. Same result.

After about a half hour of this, my wife wandered down the stairs and, in response to my explanation of what the hell I was doing, gently suggested I come back to bed as all I was doing was making the window weight bump against the wall in response to my pounding (this seemed to be interfering with her sleep). I followed her advice with the addition of a shot of Jamisons.