Our New Visitor

I don't know if I have mentioned this recently or not, but after the squirrel and then mouse issues (and it was only one of each that we can figure) a while back, things have been quiet in the walls.

A few weeks ago, when quietly typing on my PC in my office, I would hear some kind of "scritching" sound (and yes, I have since found out there is a definition for that term but it doesn't apply here and I started calling this noise that before I knew the definition and even now know, can't stop myself from using the term) in the eave area outside my office window.

I reported the sound to J and started to track when I heard it because sometimes it will give you a clue to what it going on. Now the thing about this sound is that, it wasn't of the same consistently or timing of the sounds the mouse or squirrel made so I was convinced it was something else. J went up into the attic a few times and we couldn't determine anything but were sure that it was definitely something in the eave.

I went with him and we even brought out the mouse traps just in case, and we talked about setting the live catch squirrel trap (it doesn't hurt them, just contains them) because we thought perhaps it was a possum that got in there while we had the eave on the end of house open a while ago for some work. We didn't end up setting the live trap, because we soon became convinced it wasn't a possum. Thing that confused us completely is the fact that our attic is pretty much sealed off these days so it would be difficult for anything of any size to get up there, not to mention the fact that in our warming days, it is blazing hot up there.

So, we set the few mouse traps and I waited. I left the attic stairs down one evening with the garage door open hoping if it was a possum, it might just go out for dinner at night and I could put the stairs back up and be done with it. J went on a business trip and when he would call, he would ask if I had checked the traps and if I was still hearing the scritching. I was logging it all at my desk in the office, and yes, I was still hearing the scritching. J came home yesterday and in the afternoon, went up into the attic to check things out. He decided to get all the way out next to the eave and move the insulation around. When he did this, an 8 inch lizard came out....and scurried away. I am thinking it is this beautiful skink that we have had living (I assumed on the outside) at our house for the last couple of years. He has a gorgeous blue tail. J couldn't confirm this but it is dark in the attic so perhaps it is him.

This explains why the traps weren't not being triggered and why I was hearing the scritching even when it was hot up there. He is probably in lizard heaven up there, and as long as he is not chewing on wires, I am not sure I care whether he is up there. I figure he is probably eating some bugs that I don't want to deal with, right? Personally I am just relieved that it isn't a rodent of some sort...