Squirrel Infestations In Bolton, Lancashire

Squirrel Infestations In Bolton, Lancashire – The squirrel population in  North West England 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) are not native to the U.K., having been brought here less than 200 years ago from America.
Like many members of the Sciuridae family, the Grey Squirrel is a hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for subsequent recovery. Some hoards, especially those made near the source of a sudden surplus of food.
Other stores are more permanent and are not used until many months later. It has been observed that each squirrel makes several thousand of these caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the locations of these hoards, and use distant and nearby landmarks to retrieve 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, each of two to four young..
They are minor problems, digging up bulbs and taking food intended for birds but can become major pests when they enter our houses.
It is increasingly common for pest controllers to call out to homes where a dray has been built in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are rodents and as such have teeth which never stop growing; 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 made and find that they have not damaged electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40% percent of fires without an obviously attributable cause may be started by rodents chewing on the wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the recent 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.
Dealing with squirrels requires a professional, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels restricts your options. You cannot simply buy 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 relocate them some distance away, 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 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, timed inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels should be then humanely dispatched.

That concludes this article entitled – Squirrel Infestations In Bolton, Lancashire

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Squirrel Infestations In Bolton, Lancashire is a post from: Bolton Pest Control