Squirrels In The Attic

Squirrels In The Attic -  The Grey Squirrel population in  North West England has rocketed over the last 20 years to the degee that they are now a major pest species.
The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to the U.K., having been brought here less than 200 years ago from America.
Like other members of the Sciuridae family, the Grey Squirrel is a scatter-hoarder; it hoards food in lots of small caches for later recovery. Some hoards, especially those made near the site of a sudden surplus of food.
Other caches are more permanent and are not retrieved until many months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the locations of these hoards, and use distant and nearby landmarks to find them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a few centimetres of the cache.
The nest of the squirrel is called a dray (or drey) and it is usual for the female to have two litters per year, with two to four babies each.
They are minor pests in the garden, digging up bulbs and stealing food intended for birds but can be major pests when they enter our homes.
It is increasingly common for pest controllers to call out to homes where a nest has been constructed in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are true rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the word rodent comes from the Latin ‘rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw o eat away’ and this they do extremely well.
It is rare to enter a roof space where a dray has been built and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that forty percent of fires without an obvious cause cause may be started by rodents chewing wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the modern trend towards plastic piping.
As if that isn’t enough, most household insurance policies specifically exclude damage caused by rodents so if a squirrel floods your house by chewing through a water pipe in the attic you may find yourself without insurance.
Removing squirrels requires professional help, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels restricts your options. 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, not only would removing a squirrel from the area of its food caches would probably condemn it to death by starvation, it is also a criminal offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 which makes it illegal to release a grey squirrel in Britain.
That applies also to rescuing, and releasing injured squirrels.
In most cases trapping is the the only option and this must be done in a specified manner with routine, regular inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels are then despatched humanely.

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