Teamedup Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 We have bats at both ends of the house and sparrows nesting at all four corners of the house, who are sometimes rather noisy neighbours. We also seem to have had some extremely big spiders moving in recently, which I do not appreciate in any way what so ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesLauriers Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Grillons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Mice, spiders, glis-glis (I think), flies and something which is tunnelling through the stone walls, as well as sparrows and swallows. Haven't found where the bats come from... Oh, and until it died in our woodshed, next door's cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Quote: << Oh, and until it died in our woodshed, next door's cat. >>So you won't be able to send it out to check the wetness of the rain any more. Oh dear. Did it have pneumonia?! Carole... who has all of the above except jumbo spiders... so far... plus a really delightful toad who is now treating me as a taxi service knowing that each evening I will pluck him from the path of rampaging labrador paws and deposit him carefully at his favoured destination on his sun warmed rock in the middle of the herb bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_B Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Thankfully nobody at present. However when we took possession everything had been stripped out including the light bulbs which we expected, of course. However in the grenier we found a purple skateboard and a bucket of water with a dead bat in it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 9, 2004 Author Share Posted September 9, 2004 If you find a dead bat, then usually there will be more of the them up there. Emptying a house completely is usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Spiders, blinking great monsters they are too. An old builder once told us that to have spiders in your home is the sign of a well constructed house, so don't moan if you have them. Salamanders often try to get in the front door and we have to keep the cats away or else they get stung. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Well.... huge spiders in the shower - too big to catch in a pint glass! bats, house martins and swifts, a pair of hawks, a hedgehog, lizards and most dramatic owls - Mum and babies in the chimney and dad in the peace and quiet of the barn. Think there are also a number of mice in the cave and voles in the garden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeb Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 [quote]Thankfully nobody at present. However when we took possession everything had been stripped out including the light bulbs which we expected, of course. However in the grenier we found a purple skateboa...[/quote]Are you sure it was water?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeb Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 Oh bugger - can't get the quote thing to work!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 [quote]Spiders, blinking great monsters they are too. An old builder once told us that to have spiders in your home is the sign of a well constructed house, so don't moan if you have them. Salamanders often ...[/quote]My granddad told me that spiders in the house is a sign of a happy home - I can live with being miserable!Last September we had some fairly massive ones. Only had one so far, which thankfully wasn't too big as it ran across my back from the towel I used in the batroom but I shall expect many more over the next few weeks. I've already started scouring every room from the door before entering. The current problem is the worst invasion of flies we have ever experienced. Literally hundred of them!! We also share our home with quite a few mice (several of which get brought in from the garden by our useless cat and set free once inside - I don't think he's quite grasped the idea yet, still, he's only 14), a barn owl in (you guessed it) the barn and a stone marten in the other barn - still with us after 4 years! Oh and of course, a garden full of moles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_B Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 [quote]Are you sure it was water??[/quote]No, we're not sure it was water. How would we have checked? However, it certainly wasn't Eau de Vie as far as the bat was concerned . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 10, 2004 Author Share Posted September 10, 2004 A friend is also invaded with flies, haven't seen them, but they sound like fruit flies that she has. I cannot support flies in the house, I'd rather have the spiders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David584 Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 Hopefully none of you will be sharing your homes with the termite infestation shown on a Channel 4 program last night.Lady bought a farm house in the Dordogne and having been there some while heard noises coming from the wooden beams etc.The house had already been checked as part of the compris de vente and apparently cleared.She hired a person who examines houses for termites.He found all the timbers he touched virtually crumbled to sawdust due to the termite infestation.It was his opinion that the infestation had been there for about 20 years - she only bought the house a year earlier!!!!The lady is now suing the vendor, the notaire and the original termite inspector.Apparently to repair the damage caused by the infestation, it will cost as much as what it cost her to buy the house which in this case was €100.000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted September 10, 2004 Author Share Posted September 10, 2004 The house will probably have fallen down years previously by the time french justice gets anywhere near sorting this out. All the people will have to do is keep appealing and appealing and it can go on for ever and is very very costly to those who are sueing too, just the avocats fees etc. Poor woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathalie Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 Nothing wrong with bats - they eat up to 3500 midges a night which is a good thing in my book.Spiders - well, I don't like them but they eat flies, so they have a purpose.Wasps - they serve no useful purpose at all and they have been little so and so's this year I can tell you.Cats - well - on average a cat catches 30 mice a year - our big comfy fluffy lump of a moggy catches NIL - that's NIL - mice and couldn't catch a cold. The bird murderer next door, however, has devoided our garden of birds and if it ever comes near me I'll wring it's flippin' neck.What we'll find in our house when we've completed in October is anyone's guess - living in rural Brittany there's bound to be something. At the gite we stayed at on our recent hols we spotted a rat that we called Basil (or rather - Basiiiiiiiiiilllllllle Fawlty Towers stylee) and a vole/fieldmouse that we called Peppy. Before we'd retire for the night we'd shout into the shed - Basiiiiiillllle! pizza tonight!- before depositing the bin bag. We didn't see him again towards the end of the stay - think the noise of four adults and six kids drove him away to the gite 1/2 mile away for some peace and quiet.Nathalie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chouette Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 The other night we had several huge hornets trying to get in the house through the patio doors. It must have been the light inside attracting them and they were literally banging themselves against the glass It was quite scary - I didn't realise that hornets were active during the night. Apart from those we have a couple of bats who perform acrobatics outside our living room windows each evening, but don't know where they hide during the day. When we first moved into this house in June there were loads of earwigs - haven't seen any recently but apparently they reappear in September - pah! House spiders become more active this time of year too, because it's their mating season and they come out from their hiding places to search for a mate - the big ones are the females Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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