Squirrel

Loved and hated in equal measure, the alien grey squirrel is now firmly established throughout most of Britain. Loved because it is cute and cuddly looking. Hated because it has been largely instrumental in driving our own native red squirrel to the edge of extinction; predates bird nests eating eggs and young; causes considerable damage to native woodland through stripping bark; gains access to loft spaces in homes and subsequently damages electrical cables and water pipes causing house fires and flooding; competes for food with our native and endangered dormouse; need I go on? Best controlled with live catch cage traps.

Best Methods for Controlling your Pest

DIY or The Professionals?

The majority of squirrel problems can be resolved by yourself, squirrels are easy to trap.
Where access is a problem or remedial work needs to be done you may need outside assistance.

How to catch squirrels:

The first thing to remember is that it is illegal to release a Grey Squirrel into the wild, so catch and release is not an option.

There are two options for catching grey squirrel, (discounting poisoning with warfarin):

Live capture cage traps; are the only option if there are any Red Squirrels in the area. The Red Squirrel can then be released, or a Grey Squirrel can be dispatched.
Lethal Traps; are a good option if there are no Red Squirrels in the area as modern lethal traps are highly efficient and humane. Also, it means you don't have to dispatch the squirrel yourself.

Live Capture Traps:

We advise just using a Single Catch Trap as one squirrel is quite enough to deal with at one time.
We also like the Elgeeco Live Catch Trap as it can be secured to a tree or fence in an upright position and it has a retreat box available that allows the caught squirrel to hide is so it is not stressed too much.
All live catch traps need baiting with maize, wheat, peanuts or sunflower seeds and preferable.
Pre-bait the traps for a few days to get the squirrels feeding and confident before setting the trap.
Don't be tempted to buy cheap or small traps or double entry traps; the cheap traps tend to have cheap and inefficient mechanisms and some of the specialist squirrel traps are too small and squirrels frequently escape because they are not fully in before the trap goes off. You will not catch a squirrel out again if it has been badly frightened.

Lethal traps:

In a domestic situation we prefer the Kania 2000 because it is a very powerful and effective trap that can be used off the ground in a position that only a squirrel is going to be able to access. I know they are expensive, but one trap will last a lifetime and you can be confident in it's ability to kill humanely time after time.
The Fenn Mk. 6 Traps are also highly effectice but require more skill to set correctly and precautions must be made to ensure non-target animals access the traps

Please read the BASC Trapping Pest Mammals Code of Practice first before carrying out your own trapping campaign.