The first proper frosts of the year usually arrive around now, and that is when the phone really starts ringing. Once the overnight temperature drops, both house mice and grey squirrels switch from exploring to moving in for good, and the housing stock across Beeston, Chilwell, Stapleford, Long Eaton and Sandiacre gives them plenty of ways to do it.
House mice heading indoors as the cold bites
Beeston’s dense terraces near the tram and rail interchange and the student lets around the University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus are exactly the kind of housing mice gravitate towards once outdoor food and shelter thin out: shared walls, multiple occupants, and a steady supply of dropped food near bins and takeaways. Chilwell’s retail park loading bays and the older canal-side terraces in Stapleford add commercial waste and damp brickwork into the mix, both of which mice exploit readily.
The usual signs are droppings the size of a grain of rice along skirting boards and in cupboards, scratching and scuffling inside walls or under floors that tends to pick up after dark, and gnaw marks on food packaging, cardboard or even electrical cable insulation. A single pair of mice can turn into a serious problem within weeks, since a female can have a new litter roughly every three weeks through autumn and winter.
Grey squirrels eyeing loft voids
Long Eaton and Sandiacre sit close to the Erewash Canal and the green corridor towards Trent Lock, and the mature trees along the towpaths and in gardens give grey squirrels a direct route from branch to roofline. The same applies to the leafier streets of Chilwell and parts of Stapleford. Once a squirrel finds a weak point in fascia boards, a loose tile, or a gap where a soil pipe passes through the roof, it will gnaw the opening wider to get into the loft, where it is warm, dry and undisturbed.
Squirrels are active by day, so scratching, bumping and running noises in the loft during daylight hours are a strong clue it is squirrels rather than mice. Once inside, they shred insulation and loft boarding for nesting material and will chew exposed wiring, which is one of the more common causes of loft and attic fires traced back to wildlife intrusion.
Telling the two apart
If you can hear activity but have not seen anything, timing and location are the quickest clues. Daytime noise, especially heavier scratching or scurrying directly overhead in the loft, points to squirrels. Night-time scuffling behind kitchen units, under floorboards or inside stud walls, along with small droppings and nibbled food packaging, points to mice. Squirrel damage tends to be structural: torn insulation, gnawed joists and fascia boards. Mouse damage is usually smaller in scale but spreads faster because of how quickly they breed.
What residents and landlords can do now
Before the weather turns any colder, it is worth checking and sealing gaps around pipework, airbricks and loose door thresholds, fitting a cap or guard on any soil pipe that runs up an exterior wall, and keeping bins secured with tight-fitting lids. In Chilwell and Stapleford especially, trimming back branches that overhang the roofline removes an easy bridge for squirrels. None of this guarantees a mouse or squirrel-free winter, but it removes the easiest entry points.
When it is time to call in a professional
Once mice are established in wall cavities or a squirrel has settled into a loft, DIY traps rarely solve the problem on their own, and squirrels are legally required to be dealt with humanely under UK wildlife law, which is not something to improvise. NestBusters covers Beeston, Chilwell, Stapleford, Long Eaton, Sandiacre and the rest of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, with treatment for rodents from £80 and proofing work to stop the problem coming back. Business premises in the area can also set up a quarterly inspection contract from £135, with a call-out included if anything is spotted between visits.
If you are hearing movement in the loft or walls, get in touch before it escalates: call NestBusters on 0742 984 9483 or visit nottinghampest.co.uk.
