Squirrels in my loft!

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... and how do I get rid of them?!

There's a load of squirrels that live in my garden. They're lovely but last year they discovered my loft and it sounds like they're having regular parties up there!!

I've since discovered droppings and some minor damage to things stored up there, so really need to evict them!

How do I get rid of them? My understanding is that if I catch one in a trap, I have to kill it by law. I'm not doing that! If I catch one and then drive miles away to release it, the others will still be there and I can't do that forever! I don't want to poison them for various reasons.

I can't block up every tiny hole that they could be getting in through as it's not the most accessible of lofts. I also don't have any spare cash to get someone in to do it

I bought a rodent deterrent that gives off a sound that they don't like. That seemed to work for a while but they're obviously clever because they actually moved it to somewhere it doesn't work so well!

Anyone had any luck moving them on?

Are you definitely sure it is rodents up there? Because during the late 90's an ex neighbour dismissed scratching noises for months but it eventually got so bad that when they eventually looked do you know what they found? The nephew of the person in house next door had moved into the attic and knocked down the partition wall and taped into the water and electric supply and put my neighbours Christmas decorations up and went to prison for theft

I’ve got something scratching about in my loft. I sent dh up there and he didn’t find anything. They sound like they’re wearing fucking clogs in the middle of the night. We’re not attached to any other houses, but blergh 😩

We have had squirrels in our loft! They do a lot of damage, so do need sorting. I would reccomend getting a local pest control person in - we did, they put cameras up and appropriate poison then when we were sure they were gone - we fixed the roof ( they were getting in through a slipped tile) and had chewed tbrough the stuff underneath.
We had heard noises for a long time, had previous pest control out who failed to catch anything, but a neighbour saw them on tbe roof and going under the tile!
Horrible things.

Oh god, no it's definitely squirrels, I've seen them.

And yes, they're so noisy! I wouldn't mind them if they were quiet and didn't poo up there!

Get pest control in and they will come back and check traps and take bodies. I don’t believe they can be released as they are an invasive species.

We’ve just had exactly the same problem but thankfully it was just one squirrel. But it was making a nest out of insulation and old clothes that we have up there.

They hate the smell of ammonia. I bought a big bottle from Amazon and soaked some rags near where it was making a nest. They also hate bright light - so DH rigged up a halogen that was motion censored and came on as soon as the squirrel entered the loft.

As soon as we knew it had gone - and we could tell because it was making an almighty racket until we took these steps, DH went around all the eaves and blocked up all possible entry points. We have now been squirrel free fur two weeks.

If you can try and resolve the issue behind there’s babies up there as squirrels can be one very aggressive if you try and rid the loft of young.

I don't want them to be killed, I just want them to get out of my loft!

Did the ammonia make your house out the things in your loft smell?

I suspect they're starting to nest now, so I might have to leave it until after the babies have left the nest.

They are not cute. They are very, very destructive. They nearly drove me insane. I had to replace all my soffits and facias to try to keep them out.

They’re horrible things. They ate all the electrics in my mums loft.

They’re just fancy rats with good PR.

They are awful, I feel for you. Glis glis are worse in my opinion.

The only way we got rid of ours was to wait until they left the nest eventually, and then fixed the loose fascia board they were getting in through.

But you have to get it done as soon as they exit the nest because they often return every breeding season to nest again.

There was a huge fight in my loft which resulted in a squirrel dying, and I kid you not, we had maggots literally dropping down onto the landing from the loft hatch and millions of bloody flies hatching.

You need rid OP. You need to spend a little money now, or you will have a much costlier situation further down the line. The damage they do to electrical cables is significant. They can cause fires chewing through live wires, and they can do so
much damage chewing wood - think of your roof joists! Their urine is very damaging too. You do NOT want a loft full of squirrels.

I've had them up in the loft and yes, the little bastards are so noisy at night.
This is how I dealt with them.
Firstly I got a couple of cheap Tapo wifi cameras to go in the loft, just to see where they were getting in (look on amazon. I got a couple of tapo tc70??? I think, they were about 18 quid)
When I could see where they were getting in, I could get up on a ladder and fill the area with wire wool, so there was still airflow in the eaves but they can't get in.
I sprayed my loft with a chilli oil squirrel repellent (also Amazon) to try to deter them.
Generally as long as you can disrupt their paths into the loft, then you can get rid of them

Do you have a home emergency plan attached to your home insurance? Ours covers pests inside the house, with no excess/doesn't impact claims.

This. We had the same issue and also had to get pest control in.

I live in a top floor HA flat and have had squirrels in the loft space that I have no access to. They make so much noise it sounds like they are having a party up there!!

I got HA out to have a look a few months ago, they said there is droppings, but didn't do anything else.

The HA at the moment are re-laying the whole of the loft space for all the flats, so I am hoping that once they are finished the squirrels have found another home.

Same here. We had pest control out recently and they left squirrel traps but nothing so far.
Don’t just leave it. I noticed them gnawing the wood on my balcony and by the time I investigated properly they had chewed right through a supporting beam so that was several £thousand to fix. They look for wood lice in the wood.
The most immediate fix seems to be leaving a bright light on up there all the time. The pepper stuff didn’t work on balcony. I have blocked edges with wire wool but they are strong and can get through if determined.
I like the idea of motion detector lights. Off to google!

No idea but parents holiday home in France had pine martens. My stepdad didn’t want to go into the loft where they were cos he thought it was rats!