Households ask which of the two is worse, and the honest answer is that they present different risks rather than different amounts of the same one.
Here is the comparison, without either exaggeration or reassurance.
Fire risk
Comparable, and the most serious risk from either. Both gnaw cable; both leave exposed conductors in a space full of loose insulation and dry timber. Squirrels tend to do more of it in a loft simply because a loft is where they live and where the cable runs. Either way, electrical symptoms are the one part of this that means today rather than this week.
Hygiene
This is where rats are the greater concern. Continuous marking means widespread contamination of the material they live in, and rodent infestations carry a well-recognised set of public health concerns — which is why roof-space droppings of any kind should be left alone rather than swept.
Squirrel contamination is real but far more localised, concentrated around nesting and resting places rather than distributed through the space.
Contact with the household
Low for both, and lower than people fear. Neither animal is trying to get into the living space. Rats occasionally come down through service voids into kitchens; squirrels come down almost only by accident, generally through an open loft hatch. Neither seeks contact with people, and both will avoid it if they possibly can.
The standing advice for both is the same: do not corner one, do not attempt to catch one, and if an animal is loose in a room, shut the door on it, open a window if you can do so safely, and call.
Noise and sleep
Squirrels are considerably worse, and this is the one households actually feel. A squirrel is heavy, it is active at dawn, and it lands on a ceiling like a drum. Rats are quieter and are active when people are already asleep, so a rat problem often runs longer before anybody notices.
Effect on children
Worth naming plainly, because it is frequently the real reason somebody picks up the phone. Loud noise directly overhead at bedtime frightens small children, and the reassurance that helps is a specific one: it is a squirrel, it is in the roof, it cannot get into the bedroom, and somebody is coming to deal with it.
Neither is a reason to panic, and both are a reason to act. The risks that matter are to the building and to sleep. The one that needs acting on immediately, for either species, is anything electrical.
Pets
Dogs and cats often detect either animal before anybody else does, and a pet fixating on one part of a ceiling for days is worth taking seriously as evidence. Keep pets out of the roof space and away from the work while it is being done, for their sake as much as anything.
Questions
Are they dangerous to my family?
Neither seeks contact with people. The realistic risks are to the building — cable above all — and to sleep.
Should I worry about disease?
Do not handle or sweep roof-space droppings of any kind. That guidance covers both species and is the practical answer.
My child is frightened. What helps?
A specific reassurance: it is in the roof, it cannot get into the bedroom, and it is being dealt with. Vagueness is what worries children.
Squirrel Control Hadleigh
Squirrel control in Hadleigh is £280 fixed cost. Proofing work, where it is needed afterwards, is £180. Call 01502 630 122 and tell us what you have heard or seen.
For squirrel control in Hadleigh, call 01502 630 122, or read the Hadleigh squirrel control page.