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, much as it does near Bromley, where the borough's town centre. 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 - the same pattern holds near Orpington, where one of the borough's larger outer suburbs.
Chislehurst Commons and Petts Wood
Houses backing directly onto Chislehurst Commons, or set among the mature trees typical of Petts Wood's 1930s streets, give squirrels a particularly short route from woodland to roofline. A check at the eaves each autumn is worth doing before a quiet loft becomes a noisy one over winter.
Confirming it's a squirrel
Timing gives it away. Timing gives it away: squirrels are only active during daylight hours, so early-morning and late-afternoon thumping fits a squirrel, while any noise overnight means rats or mice, much as it does near Petts Wood, where a wooded suburb of 1930s houses laid out around the railway station and shopping.
Checking for damage
Look from the loft hatch without climbing in, using a torch: flattened or shredded insulation, gnawed timber, chewed boxes and droppings near a water tank. If you find gnawed electrical cable, treat it as urgent: exposed wiring is a fire risk, so don't handle it yourself, call an electrician instead, just as near Beckenham, where broad tree-lined 1930s suburbia.
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 Bromley
Our squirrel trapping service in Bromley is £280, and since around Hayes, where a village-like suburb in the south of the borough, 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 Bromley squirrel control page.
