City team in war on squirrel home invaders

Published on Saturday 10 June 2006 14:11

SCORES of squirrels nesting in homes in the Capital have been killed by council environmental health officers.

Edinburgh City Council is expected to have culled around 60 grey squirrels over a five-month period to the end of July as they tackle increasing householder complaints about the animals.

The squirrels are captured in special boxes and killed by having their backs instantly broken.

Environmental health officers believe the number of grey squirrels living as home pests has risen alongside the growth in the population and rise in homes being built on traditionally rural land.

Gordon Greenhill, environmental health manager at Edinburgh City Council, was reported as saying today that the squirrel was a "big rat with a bushy tail".

"I don't know whether it is the way modern houses are built or not, but they same able to get in a lot easier," he said.

His colleague, Moira Gibson, added: "We do this because squirrels gnaw through electrical cables and water tanks. Their gnawing has been known to cause fires."