Rodent noises at night: what you're hearing and where

Published November 4, 2026

Light, quick pattering and scratching inside a wall usually means mice. Heavier scurrying and gnawing overhead in the attic usually means roof rats. Noise in the early morning or daytime points to squirrels. Where and when you hear it tells a technician where to look.

Start with the timing

Rats and mice are mostly nocturnal. Texas Tech’s account of the roof rat notes both rat species are mostly active at night. Most people first hear rodents a couple of hours after the house goes quiet, and again in the early morning before light.

Noise mainly in the daytime, especially early morning, points to squirrels instead. Noise only when the A/C or heat cycles on may be ductwork, not animals.

Keep a simple log for a few nights: the time, the room and the sound. It takes a few minutes and gives a technician a head start.

Where the sound comes from

In the ceiling or attic

Overhead noise in a Waco home is usually roof rats. Texas Tech says roof rats usually frequent attics, rafters and crossbeams. The sound is scurrying you can follow across the ceiling, scratching, gnawing and sometimes thumps. It often runs along the outside walls, because rats travel along the eaves.

Mice can get into attics too, especially by climbing inside walls. Mouse noise overhead is lighter and quicker.

Inside a wall

Scratching inside a wall, especially near the kitchen, a bathroom or the laundry, usually means mice. They use wall cavities as hallways between the crawl space or attic and the rooms where they find food. You may hear the sound move up and down the wall.

Rats in walls sound heavier and may gnaw loudly. In older pier-and-beam homes, rats from the crawl space can climb into walls from below.

Under the floor

In pier-and-beam homes, common in Waco’s older neighborhoods, noise under the floor means something is in the crawl space. Norway rats, mice and sometimes larger animals like opossums use crawl spaces. Rodent noise is scratching and scurrying. Larger animals make slower, heavier sounds.

In the garage

Rustling in boxes, gnawing on bags of seed or pet food and scratching along the walls usually means mice, sometimes rats.

What the sound tells you

• Light, fast pattering: mice
• Heavier scurrying, thumps and loud gnawing: rats
• Rolling or dragging sounds in the attic: rats moving food, like pecans
• Chewing at one spot over several nights: rodents gnawing a gap wider
• Squeaking: often young rodents in a nest

Confirming it

Sounds narrow things down. Physical signs confirm them.

• Check the attic with a flashlight for droppings and runways in the insulation.
• Look under the kitchen and bathroom sinks for droppings and gaps around pipes.
• Check the garage shelves and along the walls.
• Walk outside and look at the roofline and slab edge for gaps and rub marks.

Cornell’s IPM program puts mouse droppings at about an eighth to a quarter inch and rat droppings at half an inch or more. The droppings article goes into detail.

Noises that aren’t rodents

Not every bump in the night is a rat. Houses make noise as they cool down in the evening, especially older pier-and-beam homes with wood floors and long runs of ductwork. Metal ducts tick and pop when the A/C or heat cycles. Pipes knock when water shuts off. Acorns and pecans fall on the roof in fall. Wind moves loose flashing.

Those sounds tend to repeat with the HVAC cycle, the weather or the time of evening, and they don’t move. Rodent sounds move along a path, stop and start, and often come with gnawing. If you’re unsure, the physical signs settle it.

What not to do

Don’t bang on the walls every night. The rodents get used to it. Don’t spray foam into every hole you find while rodents are still inside; they can end up trapped in a wall and die there. Don’t put poison in the attic or walls, because a dead rodent in a wall smells for weeks, especially in Waco’s summer heat.

When to call

Call when you hear noise several nights in a row, in more than one spot, or during the day as well as at night. Daytime activity can mean a larger population. If you’ve confirmed droppings or rub marks, the inspection page explains what a technician checks.

For noise in the walls, see mice in walls removal. For noise overhead, see rats in the attic. If a rodent is loose in a room right now, the emergency page covers the first hour.