From the trees to the roof line
A grey squirrel is equally at home crossing tree canopies or running along a fence top as it is moving across the ground, whether that's near Harringay, where the famous Victorian ladder streets between Green Lanes and the railway, or elsewhere in the borough. 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 Wood Green, where dense flats and terraces around the shopping centre and High Road.
Highgate and the streets around Alexandra Park
Highgate's older houses back onto Highgate Wood on one side, and streets closer to Alexandra Park sit beneath its own stands of mature trees on the other, so squirrels moving between these green spaces and nearby roofs are a regular autumn sight in both.
Confirming it is a squirrel
The timing of the activity is usually the clearest tell, just as near Muswell Hill, where 1930s suburban semis spreading out from the Broadway and Alexandra Park. Squirrels keep daytime hours, so scampering and thumping around dawn and again in late afternoon points to them; anything happening in the dead of night is more likely rats or mice, much as it does near Wood Green, where dense flats and terraces around the shopping centre and High Road.
Checking for damage
Look from the hatch without climbing in, using a torch: flattened or shredded insulation, gnawed timber, chewed boxes and droppings near the water tank. Chewed electrical cable is the most serious find, since bare conductors are a fire risk - do not touch it, and have an electrician check it.
What not to do
- Block the entry hole while squirrels may still be inside; they chew a new way out, sometimes into the house
- Put down poison in the loft
- Catch a squirrel and release it elsewhere - grey squirrels are an invasive non-native species and it is illegal to release one once caught
Booking squirrel control in Haringey
Our squirrel trapping service in Haringey is £280, and since around Wood Green, where dense flats and terraces around the shopping centre and High Road, 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 Haringey squirrel control page.
