squirrels

Yesterday I was woken up at 7am to the sound of squirrels mating. I kid you not. A few years ago I had a bad mouse problem thanks to a building site next door and now grey squirrels in the attic. That's rented accommodation in London for you I suppose.


I heard a noise in my ceiling a few months ago and hoped my upstairs neighbours had a cat. No such luck, turns out there's only an empty attic above my bedroom. Then when I heard the noise again, I started to worry it might be rats - I still shudder at the thought. It's worth mentioning that I did speak to my landlord in the meantime about it, I wasn't just hoping the noise would go away, (well actually a tiny part of me was, but I'm not stupid.)


Meanwhile my housemates haven't ever heard the scuttling noise and were starting to look at me like I was crazy every time I mentioned it - it sounds like harmless kittens chasing each other and running round. I was starting to wonder if I had actually imagined it, when it came back with a vengeance yesterday morning at the crack of dawn. Eventually Welsh Boy got fed up of googling household pest infestations in bed (did you know rats can make weird sex noises) and decided to climb up into our loft (via a chair and my shoulders) to figure out what was going on. My hero. Thanks to Welsh Boy, a digital camera and the power of google I have now learnt the following:


1. I have three squirrel nests in the attic above my bedroom.
2. Squirrels nests are called dreys, they are about the size of a football and generally made in corners.
3. Squirrels mate twice a year - the first time in mid January-late February. Whoopty do.
4. There are two holes in the brick of my attic ceiling straight out into the big wide world. No wonder I get so cold in bed.
5. Squirrels are carriers of lice and fleas. Lovely.
6. Squirrels have been known to cause severe structural damage and chew through beams, electric cables and ceilings.
7. If you get ride of the nests and block up the holes, squirrels won't come back. I hope.


Thankfully my landlord was particularly interested in point 6 of my biology lesson above and immediately arranged for maintenance to come round and sort it out. Unfortunately, the time he considered best to do this was at 7.30am tomorrow morning - no valentines day lie in for me then!