Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels
Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels
Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels – The squirrel population in the Noth West U.K. has rocketed over the last 20 years to the degee that they are now a major pest species.
The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens and parks (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been introduced here less than 200 years ago.
Like other members of the family Sciuridae, the Grey Squirrel is a hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for later recovery. Some caches are temporary, especially those made near the site of a sudden
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surplus of food.
Other stores are more permanent and are not used until months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand hoards each season. The squirrels have very good spatial memory for the positions of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to find them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a short distance of the cache.
The nest of the grey squirrel is called a dray (or drey) and it is usual for the female to have two litters per year, with two to four babies each.
They are minor problems, rooting up bulbs and stealing food intended for birds but become major pests when they enter our homes.
It is increasingly common for pest controllers to be called out to homes where a nest has been constructed in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the word rodent coming from the Latin ‘rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw’ and this they do extremely well.
It is rare to enter a loft space where a dray has been made and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40% percent of fires without an obviously attributable cause may be started by rodents damaging wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the recent trend towards plastic piping.
As if that isn’t enough, many household insurance policies specifically exclude damage caused by rodents so if a squirrel floods your home by chewing through a pipe in the loft you may find yourself without insurance cover.
Removing squirrels requires professional help, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels needs to be obeyed. You cannot simply get a packet of rat poison from your local store and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.
Furthermore you cannot trap them and move them some distance from your home, quite apart from the fact that removing a squirrel from the area of its food caches would probably condemn it to death by starvation, it is also a criminal offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 under which it is illegal to release a grey squirrel in Britain.
That pertains also to rescuing, and releasing injured squirrels.
In the majority cases trapping is the the only option and this must be done in a specified manner with routine, regular inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels should be then despatched humanely.
That concludes this article – Squirrels Traps What To Do About Squirrels
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Eradicate Ants From Your Home – Permanently
Eradicate Ants From Your Home – Permanently
Eradicate Ants From Your Home – Permanently – Only the unfortunate people who have experienced it will know the true of winged ants in their homes.
Suffering an infestation of ordinary wingless ants is bad enough but when they go through their yearly mating cycle the situation can become insufferable.
Ants often build colonies under the floors and in the wall cavities of our homes and these colonies will survive for many years if left untreated becoming progressively more intolerable each year.
Our homes are warm and dry and provide the ideal places for a thriving ant colony; even ‘solid’ concrete floor is permeable to an ant.
Our room heating systems maintains their metabolism even in winter and my earliest ant call-out was on my birthday, in early January!
Ants prefer a sandy soil and there are many locations in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester which tend to suffer more ant infestationsthan others, Southport, Blackpool, Bolton, Sale & Altrincham leap to mind as hot ant spots.
Unfortunately it is during their mating cycle that they are most troublesome. Here in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester this tends to be fairlyoften around the third or fourth week in July.
Ants mate on the wing and around mid-summer they produce winged immature Queens and winged males which in a more natural environment would fly off and mate on the wing. Many thousands of these winged ants are produced per nest and nests tend to synchronise their release so that they mate with ants produced by other nests.
Invariably this process starts after two or three days of warm, dry weather and will usually go on for about a week although smaller releases will continue throughout most of June, July & August.
Unfortunately when the colony is hidden beneath the floor of the dwelling the results can be catastrophic, literally thousands of winged ants are released into the lower rooms, congregating on windows as they head for the light.
This can be extremely distressing for some people leading to extreme emotional trauma to the degree that people learn to hate the warm months of summer and have actually sold their homes to escape the invasion of ants which they know comes each year.
The wet summers of the last couple of years has meant that ant problems were down on previous years but appear to have a way of catching up and 2009 looks set to be a very busy year.
Most people who have this problem attempt DIY solutions with powders from hardware shops etc but usually these efforts are in vain as they are not getting to the heart of the problem which is the colony itself, hidden away in the cavity wall or sub-floor area.
Fortunately for many people the answer is at hand.
At Harrier Pest Control (subject to site survey) we are able to cure this problem and issue an extendable three year guarantee.
The procedure which is carried out mainly from the exterior of the property, is perfectly safe for animals and children and produces no smell, involves drilling small holes into the cavity walls of the property, not unlike a damp-course injection and injecting an insecticidal powder into the cavity under pressure.
This forms an impenetrable barrier across which the ants cannot go and together with a precautionary internal spray treatment (if appropriate) will gradually bring the infestation under control.
The holes, which are only 8mm in diameter remain open so it is a simply matter of re-injecting the cavities every three years to extend the effectiveness of the guarantee indefinitely.
This procedure is best carried out in the early spring although it can be done at any time of year.
As a limited time special offer before our busy period begins we are offering 25% off the usual cost until April 30 2009. Whilst we usually cover the whole of Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester, we are prepared to travel further afield but this will increase the cost.
For a discussion or to arrange an appointment contact Harrier Pest Prevention on Free Phone 0800 019 8382 or
http://harrierpestprevention.com
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Aller DMC Dust Mite Controller
Squirrel Stop – Keep Squirrels Off Your Nuts
