What Is Included in a £280 Squirrel Control Service?

How Many Visits

More than one. Grey squirrels are controlled by trapping, and traps must be checked at the intervals the law requires rather than whenever somebody happens to be passing. That means a set visit, checking visits and a final visit.

All of them are inside the £280. Anyone quoting a single visit for squirrels has either not explained what happens on the days in between, or is not doing it properly.

What Is Included

A roof and loft inspection to establish where they are getting in. Traps set in the roof space. Checks at the required intervals. Removal. A clear account of the entry points and what closing them would involve.

What the Law Requires

Grey squirrels are a non-native species and it is an offence to release one once caught. Any company offering catch-and-release is offering something that is not legal, whatever it sounds like on the phone.

It is worth knowing before you compare quotes, because a cheaper price that assumes a single visit and a release is not a cheaper version of the same job.

What Is Quoted Separately

Proofing the entry point, at £180 for up to an hour — and it comes after, never before. Sealing a roof with animals still inside gives you noise, then smell, then a considerably worse job that often means lifting boards or a ceiling.

Also separate: any roofing repair. Where a roofline genuinely needs re-bedding or new fascia boards, that is a roofer, and we will describe it clearly enough for you to get one in rather than quoting proofing for work that will not hold.

Damage and Insulation

Not included. Contaminated insulation, chewed cable and gnawed timber are all things we will point out, and all things for an electrician, an insulation contractor or a builder. Get the cable looked at — that is the part that turns a noise problem into a fire risk.