I've had the house for 12 months, never heard this noise before. It's a semi detached bungallow in a rural area.

About 2 weeks ago, i was lying in bed at about 2am, half asleep, and i heard scuttling across the loft floor, directly above my bedroom, pretty much above my head. I was half asleep and wasnt 100% certain, assuming it was maybe heavy rain off the roof tiles or something, or maybe even the wind.

My loft has no stairs, but it has insulation between the beams, then plywood nailed onto those beams so you can easily walk across. The plywood stops about 3ft short of either the two walls, or the angle of the roof.

Anyway, last night at 4am, i went to bed, wide awake and i heard it again, but only slightly. It was running, and in the same direction as last time, but not as loud. At first i thought it could be a big spider, but it clearly cant make that much noise through plywood. It got slightly louder and stopped in the corner again and i didnt hear it again.

It's odd ive only ever heard it twice in a reasonable time.

What could it be? I'd guess at some sort of a mouse, as at the back of my address after the garden, is about 20 acres of fields which support crops, then a bit of a forest on a hill.

But would a mouse come into my loft, and how would it get there? There's no obvious gaps or holes or anything?

What should i do? I was up in the loft about a month ago and didnt notice any poo, but im too scared to go up and look now...

I was tempted to get a mouse trap and just shove it my the loft door so i dont have to climb up. If i were to do this, what type of food do you put on it?

Eek!

Could be rats?
Or pigeon?

Traps with loose bait are no good, get a spring trap and wrap some bacon rind around it, when the mouse (Squirrel/pidgeon)grabs the rind it wont survive.

Good luck.

Mouse, rat, squirrel, me

Of the four options I suspect mouse is by far the most likely.

What to do depends on how concerned you are;leave them alone they are just looking for warmth in the winter, traps, poison, call out exterminators...

I'm sure I read somewhere that a field mouse can fit through a hole the same diameter as you could punch with a pencil, so you're unlikely to find its ingress point easily if it's a mouse. Thing is if there's one there's going to be hundreds before long. Traps!!!

EF Spelling (HOLE)

You have a 'mega spider'. A new breed that is coming over in packing cases from the orient and survives surprisingly well in the new warmer MMGW UK climate.

They can weigh up to three pounds, and are hideously powerful, but are usually vegetarian. They can, however, eat through concrete and wood with ease.

No, North West, near the coast.

Can I train it to eat flies?

Yep, we've had them in our loft and they are incredibly annoying. Protected species though, so you cannot kill them and cannot release them - you have to call the council who will come and trap the blighters...then kill them anyway.

The Rothschild thing is true as well - originally released around Tring park. Our farm is about half-a-mile away and used to be part of the Rothschild estate - there's load of them around here and the trees are crawling with them at night.

This is all irrelevant to the OP though - no chance they've made it that far north!

Sticky paper. That is what we use in the Philippines for mice/rats. A chunk of luncheon meat in the middle, mice does a dash for it, gets bogged down, whack on the head with a San Mig bottle, and it is all over.