As the nights draw in, we get a steady run of calls from homes across Hucknall, Ravenshead, Kimberley, Eastwood and Nuthall about scratching, rustling or squeaking sounds in the loft. Most of the time it’s exactly what you’d expect at this time of year: mice or rats looking for a warm, dry place to shelter. But every autumn we also get called out to a handful of properties — usually older houses backing onto woodland or with original Victorian or Edwardian roof voids — where what’s actually up there is a small bat roost rather than a rodent problem. Telling the two apart matters, because the law treats them completely differently.
Ravenshead in particular sits right on the edge of Sherwood Forest and the wider Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, and bats are a regular feature of the local wildlife, roosting in tree hollows, old barns and the roof voids of houses close to the woodland edge. Hucknall’s older ex-colliery terraces, and the Victorian and Edwardian housing stock around Kimberley, Eastwood and Nuthall, have exactly the kind of gappy soffits, loose ridge tiles and unlined roof voids that both rodents and bats find appealing — which is exactly why we see both in this part of Nottinghamshire more than most.
Quick ways to tell the difference
You don’t need to go up into the loft to get a good idea of what you’re dealing with. A few signs usually point the right way:
- Timing of the noise: mice and rats are active throughout the day and night and get noisier as they settle in, with gnawing and scratching at all hours. Bats are almost silent by comparison — the main giveaway is light scuffling or squeaking for a short burst around dusk as they leave to feed, and again around dawn as they return.
- Droppings: rodent droppings are solid, roughly rice-grain sized, and found in trails near food sources, skirting boards and loft joists. Bat droppings look similar at a glance but crumble to a dry, powdery dust when crushed between fingers (wear gloves) because they’re made up of digested insect matter rather than food waste — and they tend to pile up directly below a single entry/exit point rather than spreading around the loft.
- Smell and mess: an active rodent infestation usually comes with a stronger ammonia smell, chewed insulation, gnawed wiring and nesting material. A bat roost is comparatively clean and odourless, with no chewing damage at all, since bats don’t nest or gnaw — they simply roost.
- Entry points: rodents can squeeze through gaps as small as a 10p coin anywhere around the roofline. Bats typically use one or two consistent gaps, often where a soffit meets a wall or under a ridge tile, and use the same spot repeatedly.
Why it matters legally
All UK bat species are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. It’s a criminal offence to deliberately disturb, injure or kill a bat, damage or destroy a bat roost, or obstruct access to one — even if the roost is currently unoccupied and even if you didn’t know bats were using it. That means loft insulation work, roofing repairs, timber treatment or general pest control cannot go ahead in a roof void with an active bat roost without the right precautions, and in some cases a licence from Natural England.
This is exactly why getting the identification right before any work starts matters. A legitimate rodent infestation needs prompt treatment; a bat roost needs leaving well alone, or handled through a licensed ecologist if work genuinely has to happen nearby.
What to do if you’re not sure
If you’re hearing activity in the loft and you’re not confident which it is, the safest first step is simply not to block up entry points or attempt DIY treatment until you know what you’re dealing with — sealing up a bat’s only route in or out, even accidentally, can trap the roost and cause a serious problem. A short, careful inspection from a competent pest professional can usually confirm whether it’s rodents within a few minutes, based on the droppings, damage and access points described above.
If it turns out to be bats, we’ll say so plainly, won’t attempt to treat or remove anything, and can point you towards the Bat Conservation Trust’s helpline or a licensed ecologist if the roost is genuinely in the way of planned building work. If it’s rodents — which is by far the more common outcome — we’ll treat the infestation properly and proof the entry points so they don’t come back next autumn.
Why we mention this now
Mid-to-late October is peak season for both: rodents are actively seeking winter shelter, and bats are still active on mild evenings before cooling temperatures send them into deeper hibernation roosts, so loft noise reports to us spike across Hucknall, Ravenshead, Kimberley, Eastwood and Nuthall right about now. Getting a correct identification first saves homeowners from either an unnecessary call to an ecologist for a mouse problem, or — far more seriously — inadvertently disturbing a protected bat roost while trying to deal with what they assumed were rats.
If you’re hearing something in the loft and want it properly identified before you do anything else, give NestBusters a call on 0742 984 9483 or get in touch via nottinghampest.co.uk. We cover Hucknall, Ravenshead, Kimberley, Eastwood, Nuthall and the whole of Nottingham, and we’ll always tell you straight whether it’s something we can treat or something that needs leaving alone.
