In parts of the country, the species is culled to protect red squirrels and mitigate its damaging impact. Like young children, they love foods that aren’t good for them, so you’ll need to plan their menus carefully. As you can probably imagine this topic has been covered plenty of times before, so this is the search result for Squirrels threads that will give you plenty of information to consider. Use metal wire or a thick cord to attach your feeder to a tree. We like honeybees but hate wasps; we adore field poppies but loathe dandelions; we think dragonflies are gorgeous but don’t realise they eat butterflies. But grey squirrels can cause serious problems for foresters, native wildlife and gamekeepers. Are they scaring robins, dunnocks and wrens from eating bird food in my garden now? Gray squirrels have diverse diets, however, nuts such as oak acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts, and walnuts may comprise three quarters of their annual diet. The majority of homeowners picture them as gruesome-looking and disease-spreading. Squirrels have very strong teeth, so opt for a metal cage over wood or plastic. It is still perfectly legal to trap, shoot or poison a grey squirrel. Its probably illegal to own a pet squirrel in most countries because they are not domesticated animals, not to mention the diseases it could carry. The UK’s only viable populations of red squirrels are in places where greys are rare or absent. It is an offence under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) to introduce and release grey squirrels into the wild. suggest a feeder that is sqirrel proof and one for the squrrel but try to keep the squrrels away from the house as they will nest in attics aqnd roof spaces. Yet still the numbers increase. Squirrels tend to love the grains and the nuts within the cereals. Eventually, and it will take quite a while, the squirrels might feel comfortable enough to feed … Hang the feeder off a sturdy branch 10 feet (3.0 m) in the air. The recommendations are that suet/fat balls should be placed in special suet ball feeders without the nets. Before taking out your rifle, you should first confirm whether it’s illegal or legal to shoot squirrels in the garden. To discourage them try to reduce the food available. To be on the safe side though, I will take your advice and get a feeder as you recommend. For example, never use wood or plastic feeders, because the squirrels will simply tear them apart. By the morning, a squirrel had decapitated each one. Feeding the squirrels unfortunately might only result in feeding the invaders. Types of Squirrel in the UK Red Squirrel. Jimmy Oct 22, 2016 REPLY Relocating, over the fence, with a pellet in the brain is my preferred method of control. Squirrels can be hunted with squirrel traps in the US; these traps are designed for squirrels only. Even in the absence of invaders, feeding wildlife is associated with risks. Shooting is rarely feasible in gardens for legal and safety reasons. Yes, Acorns are a stable of a Squirrels diet. Grey squirrels can also affect the composition of native woodland by bark stripping and eating the seeds of certain trees. But pest control is legal once non-lethal methods exhausted. They originally came from America in the late 19th century and became the dominant squirrel in the UK, meaning reds are now a protected species. However, there is a lot of legislation surrounding the control of pests in the UK and concerning what you can and cannot do. Grey squirrels are allowed to be culled in Britain by shooting – so long as it is done in a humane way. – If you live in an area with only grey squirrels, look on the Map to see if there is a grey control project nearby.