Trapping: What Actually Happens

Why trapping

There Is Nothing Else

For a squirrel in a loft there is one method, and it is trapping. There is no approved poison for grey squirrels in the UK, and there has not been since 2015. Shooting is not a loft technique. Ultrasonic devices and repellents do not work. Which leaves live-capture and approved spring traps, and after that the roofline.

That constraint is why this is not a one-visit job and why it cannot be quoted like a wasp nest. Traps have to be set, left, checked and reset, and the timescale belongs to the animal rather than to the diary.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

Where they go

In the Loft, on the Route

Traps are set inside the roof space, on the runs the animals are already using — along a wall plate, at the point of entry, on the timber they are travelling over. Sign in the dust tells the technician where those runs are, which is part of what the first inspection is for.

They are placed where nothing else will reach them. That means away from anywhere a cat could get to, away from a loft hatch a child might open, and away from stored possessions. If you have anything in the loft you would rather was not disturbed, say so before the visit rather than after it.

Traps are not set outdoors in gardens as a matter of course. An outdoor trap catches whatever is passing, which is neither the point nor lawful in the case of most of what is passing.

The checks

At Least Daily, and Why

A live-capture trap holding an animal is a welfare situation from the moment it closes. So they are checked frequently — at least once a day, and that is a floor rather than a target.

What that means for you practically is access. Somebody has to get into the loft daily, which means either the technician attending or, on some jobs, the householder checking and ringing in. If you are away for a week, the traps come out first. That is not flexible and any firm treating it as flexible is one to avoid.

The animal

Said Plainly

A grey squirrel that has been caught cannot lawfully be released, so it is dispatched. Done properly this is immediate, and it is done out of sight of the household — not at the doorstep, not in the garden, and not in front of children.

You are entitled to ask what method is used and to be told straightforwardly. You are also entitled to say that you do not want to know, which most people do, and that is respected without comment.

What you will not get from us is a euphemism dressed up as a different outcome. "Humane removal" is accurate as far as it goes, but it describes how it is done, not whether it happens.

The young

The Reason Timing Matters

Grey squirrels breed twice a year, broadly late winter into early spring and again around midsummer, and a female with a litter in your loft changes the job completely.

Remove the adult and leave dependent young and they starve in the roof. That is a welfare failure and it is also weeks of smell in your ceiling and, eventually, flies. So the inspection checks for it, and where young are present the approach changes — which may mean waiting, and may mean the drey itself is dealt with rather than trapping the adult and hoping.

If nobody raises this with you at all, that tells you something about the survey you have had.

How long

A Fortnight Is Normal

Set, check, reset. A straightforward single-animal job in a house with clear access is often finished inside a week or two. A loft with several animals, or a building with more than one way in, takes longer.

And trapping is only the first half. The proofing — closing the roofline so the next one cannot get in — is separate work and it is the part that decides whether you are doing this again next year. Trapping without proofing is renting a solution.

Squirrel work here carries a guarantee with follow-up support if it is needed. Ask what the wording covers when you book, and get the price agreed before anything starts.

Short answers

Squirrel Questions

Going further

Squirrel Guides