Something scary happened to me less than a week ago. I came home after being away for the weekend. I unlatched the kitchen door, put my things on the table and saw the lid of a container on the floor. Then I saw a pint glass on the floor. Water on the floor. There was pile of post thrown face down on the floor too.

I stopped and realised that my basil plant had been yanked out; there was soil everywhere and so on!

So I looked at the windows. Everything was fine. Nothing was broken. The door as I entered my flat, was locked so that means that if someone had been in my flat they were courteous enough to lock the door when they left?

I rang the Police and told them what I could see, the fact that the door was locked etc. Oh and also that my cat wouldn’t and couldn’t have done it due to the latch on the kitchen door.

The Police said they should come and check either way. The officer who came had a good look around outside and in and then said he thought it was rats. They scurry around edges, are strong and would eat a banana the way one of my bananas was left.

So after a few hours of cleaning up, I shut the door to utility room. Suraj suggested this in the hope that the damage would be limited to the kitchen OR the utility room and then I’d know where the animals were.

The kitchen was fine! Thank goodness!

So cleaned up again and made sure the door was kept closed. Thankfully ‘they’ were only able to access the utility room so it was kind of contained.

The following day we found a dead squirrel. There was a smell the day before which became awful on the following day. I thought it was from their waste but it was because there was a dead squirrel. It was upsetting yet kind of relieving. The death wasn’t a relief but knowing what I was dealing with was helpful. The council said they’d only help if it was rats. They don’t handle squirrel infestations. So I could not ask them for support.

So I’m now monitoring it. I don’t know if there’s more. I don’t want to trap them or kill them. But of course I don’t want them to carry on invading my flat either.

Any ideas?

Name*:

Email:

Location*:

* - value is required