Trafford and Manchester Pest Control

Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels

Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels – The squirrel population in the Noth West U.K. 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 and parks (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been introduced here less than 200 years ago.
Like other members of the family Sciuridae, the Grey Squirrel is a 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.
Other stores are more permanent and are not used until months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand hoards each season. The squirrels have very good 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 cache.
The nest of the grey 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 problems, rooting 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 nest has been constructed in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the word rodent coming from the Latin ‘rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw’ and this they do extremely well.
It is rare to enter a loft space where a dray has been made and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40% percent of fires without an obviously attributable cause may be started by rodents damaging wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the recent trend towards plastic piping.
As if that isn’t enough, many household insurance policies specifically exclude damage caused by rodents so if a squirrel floods your home by chewing through a pipe in the loft you may find yourself without insurance cover.
Removing squirrels requires professional help, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels needs to be obeyed. You cannot simply get a packet of rat poison from your local store and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.
Furthermore you cannot trap them and move 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 under which it is illegal to release a grey squirrel in Britain.
That pertains also to rescuing, and releasing injured squirrels.
In the majority 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 should be then despatched humanely.

That concludes this article – Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels

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