Said It Here

Is it a rat or a mouse in my attic?

Deciding whether a rodent is a rat or a mouse from old droppings or sightings makes it difficult to know what is currently in the house. This uncertainty stops people from figuring out the right approach or understanding how the pests are getting inside.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    relying on pest control professionals to inspect the property
  2. 2
    setting traps to catch the rodent for physical identification
  3. 3
    Setting traps in the attic and inspecting the physical characteristics of the caught rodents.

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“In the UK. Rodents in attic space. Droppings look pretty large. Caught 3 in traps, of which this was the biggest. Still working on how they’re getting in. I presume this is a pretty big mouse?”source ↗

Psychological-Ad5091 · r/Pestcontrol · 2 upvotes

“Am having the loft treated by pest control who found evidence of Rats and Mice droppings but as they are old droppings, unsure what is currently up there”source ↗

“however my initial impression was it's not a rat. But would like opinion of someone more knowledgeable”source ↗

jmsl1995 · r/Pestcontrol

Where this came up

r/Pestcontrolhome maintenanceidentificationpest controlrodents

People with this problem also raised