From the park to the roofline
A grey squirrel is just as at home in tree canopies or along a fence as on the ground, and mature trees close to a house often provide an overhanging branch that bridges straight to the roof, just as near Nunhead, where victorian terraces on the rising ground around the cemetery and the green. From that point, all it takes is a weak spot at the eaves, just as near Camberwell, where dense Victorian terraces and converted houses close to the green and the hospital.
Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye's tree-lined streets
The larger period villas near Dulwich Park, and the terraces backing onto Peckham Rye, sit among some of the borough's most established tree cover, and older roofs here often already have the small gaps at ridge or fascia that a squirrel needs.
Confirming it's a squirrel
Timing alone often gives the strongest indication, just as near Dulwich, where larger period villas and semis near the park and the village. Since squirrels keep daytime hours, overhead running and thumping around first light and late afternoon points to them, while overnight noise usually means rats or mice - the same pattern holds near Camberwell, where dense Victorian terraces and converted houses close to the green and the hospital.
Checking for damage
A torch from the hatch, without climbing in fully, should reveal flattened or shredded insulation, gnawed timber and droppings by the water tank - the same pattern holds near Rotherhithe, where riverside developments and converted dock buildings. Chewed electrical cable is the one finding to take seriously, exposed or bare wiring is a fire hazard, so leave it alone and get an electrician to check it, just as near Bermondsey, where former warehouses converted to flats sit among Victorian terraces close to the river.
What not to do
- Block the entry hole while squirrels may still be inside - they will chew a new way out
- Put down poison in the loft
- Catch a squirrel and release it elsewhere, which is against the law once caught
Booking squirrel control in Southwark
Our squirrel trapping service in Southwark is £280, and since around Peckham, where victorian terraces around Rye Lane sit alongside the large ex-council blocks near the old, 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 Southwark squirrel control page.
