Squirrels appear to be cute, furry, harmless animals as they scurry around gardens and parks. However, they can be a nuisance stealing nuts, seeds and fruits left in gardens to attract wild birds and can cause chaos if left to roam around your loft space. Due to the scarcity of protected shelter, squirrels will often move into the lofts of homes, businesses and agricultural properties for the winter months.
They prepare for winter's lack of food by storing it in a safe location and attics of private and commercial properties are perfect for that. Their gnawing risks damage to your property, become aggressive if you try to remove them and require professional squirrel pest control.
Loud scratching and gnawing noises coming from the roof or garage can alert many people to the presence of squirrels in their property as well as increased sightings in gardens and around your home. Other signs include damaged garden plants, bark gnawed away on young, nearby trees, seeing squirrel droppings, small divots in your lawn (used to hide nuts) and nests in nearby trees.
Once inside your home or business, squirrels build their nests by chewing through anything they can find such as insulation, linens, fabrics and paper products - anything stored in your loft could be destroyed. Gnawing through cables could cause blackouts, and risk electrical fires and chewing through beams even risks the structural integrity of your property.
Squirrel pest control professionals can provide the best advice for deterring squirrels from your home or business, but their are few things you can consider. Reduce access, such as trimming back any tree branches that hang near your property as these provide squirrels with a bridge to leap onto your roof. Squirrels can use other forms of bridges such as cables and washing lines so consider moving these where possible. Seal any gaps into your property, squirrels are able to fit through holes as small as 2 inches wide.
Removing food sources is another way to deter them and prevent the need for squirrel pest control. Easily accessible food such as seeds and fat balls left out for birds can be replaced with squirrel proof bird feeders.
Other deterrents could include devices such as motion-activated lights, noise or ultrasonic sound which can repel other unwanted visitors such as cats or rats as well. Bear in mind that these methods could affect your pets, so squirrel pest control professionals should be consulted in this intance.
Grey squirrels can be trapped if necessary. However, if a grey squirrel is caught, it is illegal to release them back into the wild and must be humanely destroyed. Red squirrels, which can actually come in a range of colours including chestnut, light brown and even black, are a protected species and it is illegal to destroy or damage a shelter being used by a red squirrel.
We would recommend consulting and contacting AJ Pest Control before attempting to deal with squirrel pest control because of the laws surrounding their treatment.
