Latin: Martes foina
The beech marten, which in Latin is called Martes foina, is a marten that will try to search into your home. Even if the house marten does not definitely do active damage to your home, it can still become an unpleasant guest, who especially stays on ceilings and upper floors. The house marten is a relatively small but a very loud and smelly pest, and you will typically know that you have a house marten in the attic when you hear them tumble around and when you find their excrement.
Appearance
A house marten is a small predator that belongs to the marten family. The house marten is active at night and it mainly eats smaller mammals such as mice and hedgehogs as well as smaller birds and their eggs. House martens live, as their name suggests, preferably in houses, but they can also take over abandoned nests from birds. In general, you have to look up to find house martens.
House martens give birth to pups during the spring, specifically March and April, although some litters can be born as early as February. An adult house marten grows to about 70 cm long, but the tail alone is about 25 cm. To the untrained eye, a house marten can look like a ferret or a weasel with its brownish fur, pointed snout and round ears. The house marten is a very agile animal, and it can typically enter holes the size of a chicken egg. Therefore, you can easily find traces of a house marten living in your home.
Biology and behavior
There are generally two signs that there are house martens on one’s ceiling. The first is the noise. You will simply be able to hear the house marten roaming around, and they are louder than rats. The second sign is the smell and leftovers. Excrement from a house marten has a particularly strong odor. The excrement can be recognized by their twisted shape and the fact that house marten most often tries to keep their excrement in one area. The contents will consist of the things that the house marten has not been able to digest, which are typically feathers, hair and bone remains.
Damage
It is also important to make sure that it is a house marten. If there is doubt as to which animal the excrement found comes from, it is important to look for more signs. As you know, you can also have rats in the attic, but these are often quiet compared to a house marten. On the other hand, rats and mice often leave bite marks in woodwork, where a house marten will not touch woodwork at all. House marten, however, tend to tear holes in insulation and thatched roofs, which is another good reason to get rid of them.
Prevention and pest control
The house marten is easily dispelled by noise and sound. House marten are particularly sensitive to loud noises and bright lighting. By putting on some loud music (or something else that makes noise) when the house marten is active, you can scare it out of your home. They do not respond to ultrasound transmitters, so you should make noise for this tactic to succeed. If at the same time you are willing to flash a little with a flashlight in the ceiling, it can only help.
The focus on prevention cannot be overstated either. The easiest way to avoid getting house martens in your home is by removing access paths. A marten is a very flexible, small animal, and it can easily climb down downpipes or jump from branches and over to the roof. By removing the house marten’s access paths, you can easily prevent the house marten from coming back.
Trapping
Alternatively, traps can also be used to catch a house marten. The house marten is protected during the period when it can have pups, and therefore it may only be hunted from 1/9 to 31/1. The trap must also be designed so that the animal is caught alive and unharmed. If you would like to know more, you can read ”Lov om Jagt og Vildtforvaltning” and ”Bekendtgørelse om Vildtskader”.
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