Cheshire Pest Control

Archive for March, 2009

Squirrels In Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire

The squirrel population in Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire has rocketed over the last 20 years to the extent that they are now a major pest species.

The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens (Sciurus carolinensis) is not native to Britain, having been introduced here less than 200 years ago.

Like many members of the family Sciuridae, the Grey Squirrel is a scatter-hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for later recovery. Some caches are temporary, especially those made near the site of a sudden surplus of food.

Others are more permanent and are not retrieved until 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 caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to retrieve them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a few centimeters of the cache.

The nest of the grey 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 are minor pests in the garden, digging up bulbs and stealing food intended for birds but become major pests when they enter our homes.

It is increasingly common for pest controllers to be called out to homes where a dray 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’ and this they do extremely well.

It is rare to enter a roof space where a dray has been constructed and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that forty percent of fires without an obviously attributable 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 wasn’t enough, most household insurance policies specifically exclude damage by rodents so if a squirrel floods your house by chewing through a pipe in the loft you may find yourself without cover.

Dealing with squirrels requires professional help, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels restricts your options. You cannot simply obtain a packet of rat poison from your hardware store and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.

Furthermore you cannot trap them and relocate them some distance from your home, quite apart from the fact that 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 pertains also to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing injured squirrels.

In most cases trapping is the option of choice and this must be done in a specific manner with routine, timed inspections of the traps.

Trapped squirrels are then humanely dispatched.

If you have a squirrel problem in Lancashire, Cheshire or Manchester contact Harrier Pest Prevention on 0800 019 8382

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