Nocturnal, rhythmic scratching

Surrealean

I will likely regret asking this.

For the past several years now, my sleep has been disturbed regularly by a very distinct, creaking, scratching noise. It always follows a distinct number of beats, and then stops (typically 5 beats), in a manner that reminds me of crickets.

I've nearly convinced myself the noise must be biological in origin, but - though others have remarked on it - no one has ever successfully found what is making the noise or known what it was. It only ever occurs after dark, and I have had the distinct displeasure of finding it in two separate abodes in Galway, and one in Limerick; between these I stayed in Dublin for a year and never noticed the noise once.

Is there some logical explanation to be had? Some incredibly annoying katydid or wood-devouring beetle? There's a vent in my bedroom in the very general direction of the noise which I think may be hiding the culprit but I can't very well pry the thing off the wall. I realise this thread is a) vague and b) likely makes me look a little mad, but I just want whatever it is out. It's nearly 3am, I need to sleep!

dodderangler

Hate to say it mate but that sounds like a rat problem to me. More active at night and scratching is a dead give away.

Surrealean

While I wouldn't rule out rats, I should say the scratching is damn near mechanical in frequency and adherence to beat. This isn't a scuffing, measured or varied in intensity: it's a lot more like a click, an echoey little creak.

kylith

It could be wood-bring beetles. They click during summer nights to attract mates.

Kess73

it's a lot more like a click, an echoey little creak

If it only happened in one location, there would be many possible candidates in my opinion, but your Limerick and Galway locations caught my eye.

By any chance would the Galway location be on the Oranmore side of Galway, give or take a couple of miles? I ask because I know of a few houses there that had clicking/tapping noises at night during summer months, and it turned out to be beetles.

Would have to check, but I think it was the deaths watch beetle ( a species of woodboring beetle) that was found to be the culprit.

V_Moth

Mystery solved??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef

By their own account on September 1931, the Irving family, consisting of James, Margaret and a 13 year-old daughter named Voirrey, heard persistent scratching and rustling noises behind their farmhouse's wooden wall panels. Initially they thought it was a rat, but then the unseen creature began making different sounds...