Squirrel control › Long Melford
Two identical houses a mile apart can have entirely different histories with this, and the reason is usually nothing to do with the houses.
It is what is around them.
What supports a large local population
- Mature broadleaf trees. Oak, beech, hazel, sweet chestnut and horse chestnut are the productive ones. A single mature oak supports a great deal
- Continuity. Connected tree cover — hedgerows, mature gardens, a churchyard, a park — lets animals move without coming to ground
- Age of planting. Mature gardens produce far more than new ones. A street planted eighty years ago is a different environment from one planted five years ago
- Supplementary feeding. Bird feeders across a neighbourhood add up to a substantial food supply
- Water and shelter nearby
Why the edge is the worst place to be
The highest pressure is not in the middle of the woodland or in the middle of the estate. It is at the boundary between them — where good habitat meets buildings. Animals living in the cover are immediately adjacent to the roofs, and the dispersing young each autumn move outward from the cover into whatever is next to it.
Long Melford is largely made of that boundary. Mature garden planting, old hedge lines, established trees and buildings are interleaved throughout rather than separated into zones, which puts a great deal of the village into the highest-pressure category.
This explains the street pattern people notice. One road has it every autumn and the next road never does — and the difference is usually a line of mature trees rather than anything about the houses.
What high pressure actually means
Not that the problem is unsolvable. It means the annual re-assessment is more thorough. A dispersing cohort passes the building every autumn and tests whatever is available, so a property in a high-pressure location has less tolerance for a detail that has quietly failed.
- Recurrence tracks the seasons rather than the repairs
- It happens at roughly the same time each year
- Neighbours have the same experience
- Squirrels are a routine sight in the gardens
- New openings get found faster than elsewhere
Living with it sensibly
Two things, and they are both proportionate. Close the openings properly, in steel, at £180 — a permanent repair to each point. Then look along the roof line for ten minutes each September, photograph it, and compare with last year's photographs.
That is the whole of it. Nobody is going to reduce the local squirrel population, and nobody needs to. A closed roof is not interesting to any number of animals.
Questions
Should I remove the trees?
No, and in many cases you could not — preservation orders and conservation area rules apply. Cut back what overhangs the roof and close the openings.
Why does my neighbour never get it?
Usually one roof detail rather than anything about the surroundings. The pressure on both houses is the same.
Does feeding the birds make it worse?
It supports a larger local population. Siting feeders away from the house and clearing spilled seed reduces traffic close to the building.
Squirrel Control Long Melford
Squirrel control in Long Melford 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 Long Melford, call 01502 630 122, or read the Long Melford squirrel control page.