Rat In Chimney Breast

Rats are pretty clued up.

Rat in chimney breast. They choose your chimney as a safe den site. If it is a mouse rat or raccoon it will chew through the chimney balloon and you will know you have a larger critter to deal with. If you have rats in your chimney it s a good idea to have it professionally cleaned to be sure there are no nesting materials present. The balloon will baffle the noise and block the bat so it cant sneak around the damper.

If you start a fire in your fireplace and notice heavy smoke and a strong smell it could be a rat nest burning in the chimney. 90 of the time if you have wildlife in your chimney it s a female with a litter of babies. However in this case that obsolete pipe was just too inviting of a habitrail for this rat. We get them periodically and the scratching does sound ratty.

I m worrying that a rat might come out of the vent at any moment. Is there a chimney breast in your bedroom. The two most common animals to enter and live in chimneys are squirrels and raccoons. All i want is to put on the answerphone and make some lemon balm tea and watch wizadora with my kids pressed.

The other side is a gas fireplace. Maybe a wild animal like a rat or raccoon is using your chimney as a den. They see your chimney as a big hollow tree and a safe place in which to live and raise young. The pvc pipe extends through the floor joist bays under the chimney hidden behind the plywood soffit it turns and runs upward to exit out the side of the chimney right into a tree lined urban creek bottom.

Or perhaps a squirrel or bird has fallen into your chimney and can t get back out. If it is a bat or wind noise you can put in a chimney balloon to block the noise and the animal. Who do i call. Rats sometimes carry disease and cause property damage so getting them out of the fireplace is ideal.

Chimney a chimney is an easy target for a rat to enter your home looking for food and warmth. Rats make nests by gathering debris into the narrow space of the flue of your fireplace. The chimney breast is covered over on both sides one side boarded with an air vent at the bottom which is where we can hear the sound coming from. If you re hearing noises in your chimney it could be one of a few things.

It would be raiding the fridge by now. This is not an uncommon practice. It will be a bird either in the chimney or in the roof space. A chimney grate or cap can be installed to help deter rats.