Squirrel Removal in Manchester

Is it squirrels in the loft, or something else?

Start with the time of day. Grey squirrels keep daylight hours, so the scurrying, thudding and odd rolling sounds above the bedroom ceiling usually kick off around first light and come back in the afternoon. Mice and rats work the night shift. If the noise only starts after you’ve switched the telly off, our mice control page is the better place to start.

Squirrels are also easier to spot from the outside than most pests. Stand in the garden and look at the corners of the roof, where the fascia board meets the gutter. A ragged, chewed hole, or bits of pale wood in the gutter below it, is the usual giveaway.

Up in the loft, look for:

• insulation dragged into a heap or a rough nest, often near the eaves;
• gnawed cable sheathing, plastic pipes, roof timbers or stored boxes;
• rounded droppings, a little smaller than a rat’s, scattered near where they come in;
• a yellowish stain spreading across a ceiling below, which can be urine soaking through.

Here in Greater Manchester, the squirrel in your roof will almost certainly be a grey.

Why do squirrels get into Manchester lofts?

Part of it is how green this city is. Heaton Park covers more than 600 acres on the north side, Fletcher Moss in Didsbury sits between the Mersey and Stenner Woods and mixes formal garden with wildlife habitat, and Wythenshawe Park, a local nature reserve, stretches to more than 270 acres. Add the mature street trees and long back gardens of the older suburbs, and greys have an easy run from branch to gutter.

The housing does the rest. Over half the homes in Didsbury East are semis, according to the 2021 Census, and across south Manchester the 1930s semis, like those in Burnage, have timber fascias and soffits that soften and split after decades of Manchester rain. The Victorian terraces off Burton Road and the big Edwardian villas have decorative eaves, old slates and roof timbers that have been patched many times over. A squirrel doesn’t need much of a gap to get in, and it’ll happily chew a soft edge to make a small one bigger. In some older terraces the party walls don’t fully close off the roof space, so squirrels in one loft can wander along the row.

Then there’s the calendar. In autumn, greys are hunting for a dry winter den, and from late winter females look for somewhere safe to raise young. Greys can breed twice a year, with litters born in late winter or spring and again in summer, and a warm, insulated loft beats a drey of twigs every time.

What happens when you call us about squirrels?

You tell us what you’re hearing, when it happens and which rooms it’s above. We’ll ask who lives with you, including children and pets, and then we’ll offer the earliest slot we have, often the same day.

The first visit is a proper survey. We walk round the outside to find the way in, then go into the loft to find the nest, see what’s been chewed and check the water tank. We also look for bats and nesting birds before anything gets sealed, because bats and their roosts are protected by law, and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects wild birds’ nests while they’re in use. If there could be young squirrels up there, that shapes the plan too.

We’ll be straight with you about the law, because it surprises people. Grey squirrels are a listed invasive species, and under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 it’s an offence to release one you’ve deliberately trapped. Government guidance is that a trapped grey should, where possible, be humanely killed by someone trained and equipped to do it. So we set traps inside the loft, on the runs the squirrels use, check them at least once a day, and deal with anything caught quickly and humanely. We don’t use poison: rodenticides are authorised for rats and mice, not squirrels, and a poisoned squirrel dying inside a wall is the last thing you want.

Once the loft has gone quiet, we seal every way in with galvanised mesh or metal that squirrels can’t chew through. If the fascia is rotten or tiles are missing, we’ll tell you plainly that it needs a roofer or joiner, and show you where.

Is squirrel removal safe with children and pets?

Yes. There’s no poison and no bait anywhere in the house. The traps sit inside the loft, set back from the hatch, and the hatch stays shut while they’re down, so there’s nothing within reach of a toddler, a curious cat or the dog.

If your loft is a playroom, a home office or a storage space you’re in and out of every day, tell us at the start and we’ll plan where the traps go around you. Everything is collected at the end. When you clear up after squirrels, wear gloves and a dust mask, dampen droppings with disinfectant before picking them up, and bag soiled insulation rather than shaking it out.

How many visits will it take?

Most jobs follow the same shape: a survey and set-up visit, regular trap checks for a week or two until the noises stop, then a proofing visit and a final check. A big Victorian roof with several weak spots, squirrels coming and going along a terrace, or a job that needs scaffolding or a roofer can stretch that out. We’ll tell you after the survey what we expect, and keep you posted if it changes.

How do you stop squirrels getting back in?

Sealing the roof properly is what stops this being an every-autumn problem. We fix galvanised mesh or metal over gaps at the eaves, where fascias and soffits meet, around gable ends and where pipes and cables pass through. A few things on your side help too:

• keep branches trimmed well back from the roof and gutters, checking first whether the tree is protected or you’re in a conservation area;
• get rotten fascias, soffits and missing tiles repaired before the winter;
• put a fitted lid on the cold water tank in the loft;
• use squirrel-proof bird feeders, and keep them away from the house walls;
• have a look round the roofline each autumn once the leaves are down, when gaps are easier to see.

After any roofing or loft work, check the eaves: a disturbed soffit or a gap round a new vent is a common way back in.

When does DIY stop being enough?

Pretty quickly, to be honest. A grey squirrel you’ve trapped can’t legally be let go, and humane dispatch isn’t something to attempt without training. Since April 2024, setting a glue trap for any rodent in England, squirrels included, has been an offence under the Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022, apart from tightly licensed professional use. Ultrasonic boxes and smelly deterrents rarely shift a squirrel that has a warm nest.

Please don’t block the hole yourself until you’re sure the loft is empty. A squirrel shut inside will chew its way out, sometimes through the ceiling, and young left behind will die there.

It’s time to call us if you’ve heard them for more than a day or two, if cables or the water tank have been chewed, if the noise is inside the walls, if you can’t safely reach the eaves, or if it’s late winter to summer and there may be young in the loft.

Is it my landlord’s job or mine?

If you rent, report squirrels to your landlord or letting agent in writing as soon as you hear them. In most lets in England, section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts the structure and exterior, including the roof, on the landlord, so closing the way in usually falls to them. A home must also be fit to live in under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, and councils can assess pests under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. The exact split depends on your tenancy.

In a flat, the roof is often the freeholder’s or management company’s responsibility under the lease, so speak to your managing agent. Council pest services vary across Greater Manchester. Some, such as Stockport and Trafford, list squirrels among the pests they’ll treat, so it’s worth checking your own council’s pest page. The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 deals with rats and mice, so it doesn’t give councils the same powers over squirrels.

Whoever is paying, we’ll write up what we found, what we did and what still needs a builder, so everyone is working from the same facts.