The grey squirrel population in the North West U.K. has rocketed over the last twenty years to the degee that they are now a major pest dealt with by Squirrels in Attic Pest Control
The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens and parks (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been brought here less than 200 years America and Canada
Like other members of the Sciuridae family, the Grey Squirrel is a hoarder; it hides food in lots of small caches for later recovery. Some hoards are temporary, particularly those made near the source of a sudden surplus of food.
Other caches are more permanent and are not retrieved until many weeks later. It has been observed that each squirrel makes several thousand of these caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the positions of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to find them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a short distance of the hoard.
The nest of the squirrel is called a dray (or drey) and it is normal for the female to have two litters per year, each of two to four young..
They can be minor pests in the garden, digging bulbs and eating food intended for birds but can become major pests when they come into our homes.
It is increasingly common for Trafford Pest Control to be called out to houses where a dray has been placed in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the very word rodent coming from the Latin word rodere which means to gnaw or eat away and this they do very successfully.
It is rare to enter a loft space where a dray has been constructed and find that they have not damaged electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40 percent of fires without an obvious cause may be started by rodents damaging wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the modern movement towards plastic piping.
As if that is not enough, most household insurance policies do not cover damage by rodents so if a squirrel floods your house by going through a pipe in the loft you may find yourself without insurance.
Dealing with Squirrels in Loft needs a professional, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels is ever changing. You cannot simply get a packet of rat poison from your local hardware and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.
Furthermore you cannot trap them and release them some distance away, quite apart from the fact that removing a squirrel from the area of its food hoards probably starve it to death, it is also commintting an offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 under which it is illegal to release a grey squirrel in in the British Isles.
That applies also to rescuing and/or rehabilitating and releasing injured squirrels.
In most cases trapping is the most realistic option and this must be done in a specific manner with routine, timed inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels are then despatched humanely.
If you have a squirrel problem in Lancashire, Cheshire or Manchester phone us on 0161 930 8814