There is a question underneath the usual one. Not why a loft is attractive, but why an animal was out looking for somewhere to live in the first place.
For a large share of Sudbury cases the answer is that it is young, it has recently left home, and it has nowhere else to go.
What dispersal is
Grey squirrels breed twice a year. Young from the summer litter become independent from around late July, and they cannot stay. Established adults hold their range, the good nest sites are already occupied, and a juvenile has to find territory of its own or fail.
So from August onwards a cohort of inexperienced animals is moving through the landscape, assessing everything, with no site to return to and increasing pressure to find one before winter. That is the population that finds roof spaces.
Why it is usually a young animal
- It has no established site to defend or return to
- It has been pushed out of the best habitat by adults
- It is exploring far more widely than a settled animal does
- It is less cautious about unfamiliar structures
- It is under a deadline: shelter before the weather turns
This is why it is rarely one animal, one year. Dispersal is an annual event. A roof that is open in September is presented to a fresh cohort every single autumn, which is a quite different situation from one animal taking a liking to a house.
What it means for a property
It reframes the question from ‘why us’ to ‘why was the door open’. Nothing about the household attracted anything. A large number of animals passed the building looking for exactly what a roof space offers, and one of them found a way in.
It also explains the second peak. Where the summer cohort disperses in autumn, the spring litter disperses in late spring and early summer, which produces a smaller and less noticed wave of the same behaviour.
Sudbury's position
The town has a good deal of mature tree cover and river-valley planting close to housing, which supports a healthy resident population — and a healthy resident population produces a large dispersing cohort each year. Properties at the edge of that cover see the most traffic.
It is also a town with a lot of terraced and semi-detached property, where a roof space may be shared or only partly divided. A dispersing animal entering one building can end up above a neighbour's bedroom, which is worth knowing before anybody assumes the entry is on their own roof.
The practical conclusion
You cannot influence the dispersal. You can influence whether the building is one of the options, and that is what proofing at £180 is for — it takes the property out of the annual assessment rather than resolving one animal's visit.
Questions
Why us and not next door?
Almost always because of one detail — an open soffit joint, a lifted verge, a branch reaching the roof — rather than anything about the household.
Does it mean there is a nest nearby?
Not necessarily. A dispersing animal may have travelled a considerable distance from where it was born.
Why does it happen the same time every year?
Because dispersal is seasonal. The same wave of young animals moves through every autumn.
Squirrel Control Sudbury
Squirrel control in Sudbury 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 Sudbury, call 01502 630 122, or read the Sudbury squirrel control page.