From tree canopy to roof
Grey squirrels are just as agile moving through tree canopies and along garden fences as they are on the ground, as anyone near Bexley Village will recognise, where the oldest part of the borough — Georgian and Victorian housing around the historic. A property near a mature tree usually has at least one branch reaching over the roofline, giving a squirrel a ready-made route in, provided there's a gap at the eaves to exploit, as anyone near Barnehurst will recognise, where quiet residential streets on the borough's eastern edge.
Old Bexley and Hall Place's mature gardens
The tree-lined roads and older gardens around Old Bexley and Hall Place give squirrels plenty of cover right up to the roof edge, and the larger, older lofts typical of this part of the borough give them more room once inside.
Confirming it's a squirrel
Timing is the clearest clue. Squirrels are active by day, so running and thumping around first light and again in the late afternoon points to them, while noise in the middle of the night is more likely rats or mice.
Checking for damage
Look from the hatch without climbing in, using a torch: flattened or shredded insulation, gnawed timber, chewed boxes and droppings near a water tank. Chewed electrical cable is the most serious find, since bare wiring is a fire risk - don't touch it, and have an electrician check it.
What not to do
- Block the entry hole while squirrels may still be inside; a trapped one chews a new way out
- Put down poison in the loft
- Catch a squirrel and release it elsewhere - it's illegal for this species
Booking squirrel control in Bexley
Our squirrel trapping service in Bexley is £280, and since around Bexleyheath, where the borough's main town centre, it helps to say when you book squirrel control whether the sounds are by day or night and whether trees overhang the roof, with more on the Bexley squirrel control page.
