We all know about being in the right place at the right time; the unexpected benefit that comes from purely being lucky to be someplace when something good happens but what about the opposite? That’s easy, its being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that’s the subject of this blog, the grey squirrel. 

 

 

We’ll all see them darting through the trees, superfast, grey, furry and aerial acrobats that can, and do delight us with the feats of jumping, outstanding balance and complete absence of fear as they tear along the thinnest of branches at breakneck speed, and perform jumps from tree to tree that seem to defy gravity. You’d be given to think from that description that I’m a fan of the grey squirrel, well I am if only very, very slightly if I’m completely honest. 

 

I live in the south east of England and any visit to our nation’s capital is only complete with a walk through one of the London parks especially in spring and summer, and yes, they delight me as they run up to you and stand on their back legs begging for food, but as a pest controller, I see the darker side of their nature up close, and you can’t forgive them for the trail of carnage they leave behind. 

 

Ok, before I start to villainise the grey squirrel, people will always say that “what about their rights?”, “they were here before us”, “they have a right to live too” and on it goes, these are all common arguments that confront pest controllers every day. If we want to walk that path, the one in which Chris Packham advocates that animals like rats and grey squirrels have the same rights as us in every legal sense, then what about bacteria and viruses, are these not living organisms too? Can you imagine a world where we could not treat bacterial or viral infections because of their legal right to life? Complete and utter nonsense you’d say, and yes, I’d agree with that. 

 

Well, that’s exactly the same situation with the grey squirrel; no, it wasn’t here before us, it belongs in North America where is does have at least some predators to check the population growth. North America wasn’t discovered until 1000AD so let’s be quite clear: it categorically doesn’t belong here, it’s an invasive species and as the native North Americans found out, invasive species can be devastating to the resident population. 

 

All animals should have the right to be treated respectfully and decently, whether livestock, wild or kept as pets that’s a no-brainer but they don’t have the same rights as us. Packham openly suggests that you allow rats and squirrels to live in your roof space, his own words are “I offer them safe refuge in our roof space and food in the garden”, well I visit many loft spaces through the course of my daily workload, and I see a lot of damage which is done by grey squirrels.  

 

The obvious is cable damage, electric cables are soft and pliable, rodents like to gnaw and they will run their incisors over different materials, more often than not its wooden roof joists, but occasionally they’ll attack cables and if that particular squirrel likes cables, then it’s very much bubble wrap and teenagers, they just can’t stop fiddling. I see a disproportionate amount of cable damage between the rodent pests with squirrels by far, doing the most damage. This equates to expensive electrical repairs, so having rodents living in your loft is just plain stupid, and dangerous. 

 

Yeah, maybe it’s a bit dramatic calling them dark destroyers as they’re light grey in colour, but these squirrels destroy tonnes of softwood and eat their way through thousands of songbirds every year. The grey squirrel is highly adaptable in its diet; they will eat meat unlike the reds, so nesting birds and eggs are on the menu, you’ll often see wooden nesting boxes that have been gnawed open by a hungry squirrel that has trapped the occupants inside and is coming in for tea. 

 

They’ll also strip bark from trees to get at the membrane beneath that carries the sweet sap up the length of the tree. It’s called ring barking and once the bark is removed, the branch or the tree will die. Its more common for pregnant females to do this from April to August as this membrane also transports calcium and because the females are lactating throughout this period, its thought that they need the calcium for milk production. 

 

Going back to rights, these animals cause an estimated £37 million pounds of damage each year to the forestry and wood production industry, young trees even those as old as forty are highly susceptible to squirrel damage. Imagine waiting, only to see forty years of hard work destroyed, you also lose carbon capture which harms the environment, then you have further biodiversity loss and this leads to thought processes where tree production just isn’t in the farmers interest as there’s no profit to be made, what’s right about that? 

 

I know that there are always two sides to any argument, however you must consider that your point of view maybe wrong, alternatively, it might be right but opinions must be swayed by the facts, otherwise they are no longer credible and they’re not opinions anymore, they’re just dogma. The grey squirrel does not belong here in the UK; it has nothing to check its population and the growth in numbers means that it is coming into increasing conflict with us. They don’t make good neighbours’ because they will not respect your property, or your health, they damage the roof structure gnawing their way in, sometimes causing water leaks, and once inside they tear up the insulation to create a drey. I’ve seen entire lofts which have had virtually every scrap of fibreglass insulation torn up, removed from the plasterboard ceiling and rolled into nests. 

 

They will also damage wiring inside the loft, no-one could possibly advocate that having dangerous, stripped electrical wiring is okay to have around, the possibility of death or serious injury through an electric shock says otherwise, and this is why throughout our urban centres like Maidenhead and Reading, the grey squirrel is a pest.