What the Trapping Service Includes
The booking covers trapping the grey squirrels using your roof space, at one address, for a single price agreed in advance. It includes working out where they are getting in and telling you plainly what the repair will involve, so you can line up whoever is going to do it. It does not include the repair itself, tree work, or replacing chewed insulation or cable. Before anything is set up you will be told what is needed from you, which is generally straightforward: keep the loft hatch shut, stay out of the roof space, and leave anything that has been placed there alone.
The Order of Work, and Why It Matters
Squirrel jobs go wrong when the steps are taken in the wrong sequence, and nearly always in the same way: the hole gets closed too early. The order that works is:
- Be sure it is squirrels and not something else in the roof — daytime noise is the strongest clue
- Trap, with the way in left open while that is happening
- Confirm the roof space is genuinely empty before anything is sealed
- Repair the entry point properly, with a roofer or carpenter if it involves the roof edge
- Cut back the branches, fences and climbing plants that put a squirrel on the roof in the first place
The reason the gap stays open until the end is simple: a squirrel shut in will chew its way out, and that exit may well be downwards into the house rather than back the way it came. In spring and summer there may also be young in a nest that cannot leave by themselves. What decides how long it takes depends on the roof and how many animals are using it, so no date is promised at the point of booking. If the noise turns out to be at night rather than in daylight, telling squirrels from rats is the place to start, and rat control is the booking you want instead.
The Law on Grey Squirrels
This one catches people out, so it is worth being direct about it. The grey squirrel is listed as an invasive non-native species in Great Britain. Once one has been caught it must not be released back into the wild or allowed to escape, which means driving it to a park or a wood and letting it go is not lawful, however kindly meant. Red squirrels are a protected species and are not a London matter. The legal position on release sets out the position in full, and it is the main reason this is a trapping service rather than something to attempt with a cage from a hardware shop.
The Repair That Follows
Getting the squirrels out is half the job; the roof is the other half, and it is a separate trade. London roofs give squirrels a long list of options: softened fascia and soffit timber on older terraces, the joint where a bay or rear extension roof meets the main wall, slipped tiles and slates, plastic roof and gable vents that chew through easily, and the awkward corners around dormers and loft conversions. A lasting repair uses something they cannot cut through, such as galvanised steel mesh or sheet behind the repaired timber. Line up a roofer early so the work can follow straight after the loft is confirmed empty, rather than weeks later with the gap still open. Closing the roof properly covers what a good repair looks like, and our London squirrel guide covers the checks you can make yourself beforehand.
Where tree work is involved, a tree surgeon is the right call for anything substantial, and it is worth checking with the council first, since a tree may be protected or the property may sit in a conservation area.
Terraces, Conversions and Shared Roofs
In a terrace or a pair of semis, the loft you are hearing noise in may not be the loft with the hole. Party walls in older roofs do not always run right up to the underside of the tiles, so a squirrel that entered three doors down can be nesting above your bedroom. Repairing only your side then achieves very little. In a house converted into flats, the roof space may belong to the top-floor flat or be held in common under the lease, so establish who is responsible before any roof work is arranged. Talking to neighbours early is not a courtesy here, it is what makes the repair work. Why the same roof keeps being chosen explains the rest.
Where We Work
Across all 33 London boroughs, wherever there are mature trees within reach of a roof, which is most places. Brent is the borough written up so far: Squirrel Control Brent is the borough page and Pest Control Brent the hub above it. If what you are hearing overhead turns out to be lighter and nocturnal, mouse control is the booking that fits.
