From the square to the eaves
A grey squirrel moves through tree canopies and along parapet lines with ease, so a terrace overlooking one of Westminster's garden squares, with mature plane trees close to roof height, gives squirrels a direct route onto the buildings around it.
Confirming it's a squirrel
Timing gives the clearest indication: squirrels keep daytime hours, so activity around dawn and late afternoon points to them, while overnight noise means rats or mice, true near Paddington too, where mixed housing near the station.
Checking for damage
Look from the loft hatch without climbing in, using a torch: shredded or flattened insulation, gnawed timber, chewed boxes and droppings near a water tank. The most serious find is chewed electrical cable, bare conductors are a fire hazard, so leave it alone and have an electrician check it, whether that's near Bayswater, where large converted terraces and mansion blocks close to the park and the tube, or elsewhere in the borough.
What not to do
- Block the entry hole while a squirrel may still be inside - it will chew a new way out, sometimes into the house
- Put down poison in the loft
- Catch a squirrel and release it elsewhere
There's a legal angle too: as an invasive non-native species, a grey squirrel cannot lawfully be released once caught, true near Marylebone too, where georgian terraces and mansion blocks around the high street and the park.
Booking squirrel control in Westminster
Our squirrel trapping service in Westminster is £280, and since around Victoria, where mixed commercial and residential streets close to the station and the coach terminal, 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 Westminster squirrel control page.
