From the trees to the roof line
A grey squirrel moves through tree canopies and along fences as easily as along the ground. Houses close to mature trees have a branch overhanging the roof that acts as a bridge, and from there the squirrel only needs a weak spot at the eaves.
Collier Row, backing onto Havering Country Park
The suburban streets of Collier Row back directly onto Havering Country Park, giving squirrels an easy route from woodland straight to the houses along its edge. A check at the eaves each autumn is worth doing here before a quiet loft becomes a noisy one over winter.
Gidea Park's mature gardens
The leafy streets of the Gidea Park estate, with their larger detached houses and mature trees, offer squirrels plenty of cover close to the roof line, and the estate's older, larger lofts give them more room once inside.
Confirming it is a squirrel
The timing of the activity is usually the clearest tell, just as near Gidea Park, where leafy streets of larger detached houses. Squirrel activity happens by day, typically a burst around first light and another in late afternoon, so overnight scratching or running points elsewhere, to rats or mice, whether that's near Elm Park, where compact 1930s semis built along the arterial road out towards Hornchurch, or elsewhere in the borough.
Checking for damage
Without going in, check from the loft hatch with a torch for signs like squashed or shredded insulation, gnaw marks on timber, chewed storage boxes and droppings by the water tank, just as near Hornchurch, where a mix of interwar semis and later estates spreading out towards the Essex border. Of everything a squirrel can chew, electrical cable is the most serious, since bare conductors are a fire risk; do not touch chewed cable 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
That last one is a legal point rather than a practical one: grey squirrels are an invasive non-native species, and it is illegal to release one into the wild once caught.
Booking squirrel control in Havering
Our squirrel trapping service in Havering is £280; the Havering squirrel control page has the detail. When you book squirrel control, say whether the sounds are by day or night and whether you can see nearby trees or branches overhanging the roof.
