Late night munchies.

I am no longer the night owl that I was in my twenties, these days I go to bed before Dave. For the past few weeks, before falling asleep, I have heard little chewing sounds coming from one corner of our bedroom. That shouldn't happen, the spray foam insulation, in addition to keeping us well insulated, is supposed to deter pests (insects and rodents) from getting into the walls. When I told Dave about hearing the little scraping, gnawing noises he dismissed it as a branch rubbing against the roof.  ~ I would like to point out that there are no tree branches touching the roof of our house. Garage, yes. House, no. ~

This past Sunday night, at 3:30 am, Dave & I woke up to a loud scraping noise. At first we thought something was in the furnace duct. Then we realized that something was chewing in the walls. Dave tracked the sound to the window at the top of the stairs, near the ceiling. No amount of thumping on the walls scared our late night gnawer away.  ~ I should also point out that over the years we have become very familiar with the little scurrying and wall chewing noises of mice. One or two good thumps on the wall usually gets them to stop and the humans can go back to sleep. ~  Dave took the screen out of the window, leaned out and pounded on the outside of the house. The critter seemed oblivious. I very helpfully pointed out that maybe it was deaf. The gnawing was LOUD, this was no demur little mouse. In keeping with the law that everything sounds bigger in the dark, this thing sounded to be about the size of a woodchuck. Exasperated, Dave finally gave up trying to frighten the intruder and returned to bed. As we lay there, the gnawing stopped and a minute later started up again, in a corner of our bedroom near the ceiling. Dave let a few expletives fly. After a few more gnaws, our nocturnal party animal quieted down for the rest of the night.

Two more nights have passed, both with pretty miserable weather, without our late night visitor.

We think whatever it is, probably either a chipmunk or squirrel (don't they ever sleep?), has been getting in somewhere along the roof line of the new construction and running around in the rafters - where there isn't any spray foam insulation. Time to do some sleuthing to find the port of entry and plug it tight!