Pest Control – Squirrels

There are two species of squirrel in the UK – the native red squirrel (now largely confined to Scotland and remote areas), and the grey squirrel – an introduced pest species which is common throughout England, including the counties we serve. This guide will help you to identify the presence of squirrels in your home or premises, and sets out the professional squirrel control options available.

How to Tell if You Have a Squirrel in Your House

Squirrels can invade houses, commercial premises, and outbuildings seeking warmth, shelter, and somewhere to nest. Since squirrels are mainly active during the day, they may well be seen entering or leaving the property. Lofts are a favourite habitat and a squirrel that has invaded your loft may well be heard scratching, running, or climbing overhead.

As well as being noisy and intrusive, squirrels can cause considerable damage to the structure of a property. They will often enter through missing roof tiles or rotten soffits – and they’re not averse to gnawing through timbers to widen out small gaps! Once inside, they will continue to gnaw indiscriminately and, like rats, can chew right through electrical cabling, posing a severe fire hazard in the process!

Looking beyond the home environment, the grey squirrel is officially classed as a pest species and is damaging to native species – particularly the red squirrel, which has been aggressively pushed from its natural habitat. Grey squirrels also eat birds’ eggs, and even live young.

Our Local Pest Control Call-Out Service

If you have a squirrel in your property it is best to work with a professional pest control technician to resolve the issue quickly, safely, and humanely.

Trapping is the commonest treatment – using either break-back traps, which sound unpleasant, but which actually kill quickly and cleanly, or humane traps – whereby the live squirrel can be removed and humanely destroyed. (Owing to the squirrel’s official classification as an introduced pest species, it is illegal to release a captured squirrel back into the environment).

Poison is occasionally used, but may lead to issues if the dead squirrel cannot be located and removed. Outside of the home, traditional squirrel control measures include drey poking and shooting – this is typically performed either to remove squirrels which have nested too close to a house for comfort, or to control squirrel populations throughout a wider rural area, often in order to protect native bird species.

Many people are keen to use humane squirrel control solutions. As well as tackling the existing problem sensitively and humanely, we can also perform minor proofing works to prevent a future issue before it occurs. Naturally, this ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach represents the most humane pest control measure of all.

Our service begins with a detailed site survey to allow us to definitively identify that squirrels are present. Next we’ll recommend the most appropriate remedy based on your individual circumstances. (We also deal with other rodent pests, as well as birds, so if the problem proves to be a rat, mouse, or roosting bird then we are equally able to help.)

Call us today on 0118 3801544 / 07972189648, email info@combatpestsolutions.com, or use our contact form to book a call-out, or simply to ask us any questions you may have.