Help! Squirrel in the house

[Feckoffsquirrel]

It is in the loft and sometimes it patters about in the floor boards. I am sitting in the kitchen and I can hear it running around the ceiling. I would normally bash the ceiling with a broom but the bedroom is above the kitchen and DH has gone to bed/sleep.

I tried Rentakill but they want me to show them some droppings before they will come out. I’ve read that this is a fire risk as squirrels can chimp through wires.

What can I do? Who can I call?

Check your local council's pest control web pages. Ours has a link to a local pest control site and that costs £92.40 for squirrel control. There's nothing on there about having to prove it first.

Rats are free though. I would assume if you told them it was rats and it turned out to have a fluffy tail instead of a skinny one, you'd have to pay the difference.

Our local pest controller's website says this about squirrels:

"Damage

The outdoor damage is fairly innocuous to the general public; they damage trees by stripping off the bark, they take fruit from the garden, raid wild birds’ nests for eggs and raid bird tables for nuts. Most of the time we tolerate this damage, for the pleasure of seeing squirrels around the garden. However, when they get into the loft of a house they do a great deal of damage indeed. Squirrels are incredible acrobats, and are able to climb up the vertical outside wall
of a house by holding on to the pebbledash or to the tiny gaps between bricks and mortar. Once they reach the eaves, they can find their way in through holes left for overflow pipes or loose slates. Once inside they will gnaw wood, pipes, electrical cables and shred insulation. They will also gnaw at any stored valuables in the loft space. In severe cases squirrels will even gnaw through plasterboard and enter upper rooms.

Squirrels are not normally dangerous, but a wild one trapped in a loft or cornered will bite very hard indeed."

Apparently Feb/Mar is breeding season so you really want to get it/them out before there are more of them!

I expect it's a rat. I know that's not what you want to hear, especially as it's active at night.

Not necessarily -- we were hoping ours was a rat, as they're easier to get rid of, but no, it was a brace of deafening, nocturnal squirrels who liked to do interval training up and down the attic.

Eventually, we just called in whichever pest controller could come out soonest -- definitely no proof required in advance.

Any luck op? It must be driving you nuts.

@nachthexe, I loved that, and felt intense fellow-feeling. After being woken up ten nights on the trot, I would have clubbed in with you for a flamethrower, and wielded it myself, screaming, with a Rocky-style headband.

Not yet - I have taken the dog for a walk. The same dog who ignores all pattering sounds but who will bark at the postman 🤦‍♀️

Bollocks. So I’ve been onto the council website, the same council whose tax rate is akin to Mayfair, and they no longer offer a pest control service. The webpage says I need to contact a local professional but have given no names.

Not helpful.

Ask on a local Facebook page for recommendations? It doesn't sound from the replies here like it's standard practice to need proof so you might just have got unlucky with that particular pest controller, someone local is bound to know a decent one.

Omg I love squirrel cop. Haven’t heard it before but yes! Squirrels. Trouble.

OP when you get pest control in, ask them where the animals are coming in and do something about it. It took me ten years to discover how rats were getting into the house. Unprotected drain pipe. Duh. And I frequently use "like a rat up a drain pipe" so I should have known.