By: Ken Chadwick
The squirrel population in Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire has grown over the last 20 years to the extent that they have grown to be a major pest dealt with by Squirrels Pest Control
<BR><BR>The grey squirrels which we see in our own gardens (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been brought here less than two-hundred years Canada and America.
<BR><BR>Like other members of the family Sciuridae, the Grey Squirrel is a hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for later recovery. Some hoards are temporary, particularly those made near the source of a sudden surfeit of food.
<BR><BR>Other hoards are more permanent and are not retrieved until many weeks later. It has been seen that each squirrel makes several thousand caches each year. They have very good spatial memory for the positions 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.
<BR><BR>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, each of two to four young..
<BR><BR>They can be minor pests in the garden, uprooting bulbs and stealing food intended for birds but can become major pests when they come into our properties.
<BR><BR>It is increasingly common for Trafford Pest Control to be called out to properties where a nest has been placed in a loft or attic space.
<BR><BR>Squirrels are true rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the actual word rodent comes from the Latin word rodere which means to gnaw or eat away and this they do very successfully.
<BR><BR>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 up to 40 percent of fires without an obvious cause may be started by rodents chewing on the wiring.
<BR><BR>Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the modern movement towards plastic piping.
<BR><BR>As if that was not enough, many household insurance policies do not cover damage by rodents so if a squirrel floods your house by going through a water pipe in the loft you may find yourself without insurance cover.
<BR><BR>Removing Squirrel Pest Control requires a professional, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels is complicated and ever changing. You cannot simply buy a packet of rodent poison from your local store and deal with them that way as you would be breaking the law.
<BR><BR>Furthermore you cannot catch them and relocate them some distance from your home, quite apart from the fact that removing a squirrel from the area of its food hoards probably condemn it to death by starvation, it is also breaking the law under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 under which it is illegal to release a grey squirrel in in the British Isles.
<BR><BR>That applies also to rescuing and/or releasing injured squirrels.
<BR><BR>In the vast majority of cases trapping is the the only option and this must be done in a specified manner with routine, regular inspections of the traps.
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Bio:
Ken Chadwick B.A.(Hons) is a <a href="http://www.harrierpestprevention.co.uk">Pest Control</a> professional as <a href="http://www.manchesterenvironmentalservices.com">Manchester Pest Control</a>. He frequently appears on radio and TV talking about <a href="http://www.harrierpestprevention.co.uk/squirrels.html">squirrels</a> and other pests.
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