As the mornings turn colder across Carlton, Mapperley, St Ann’s, Gedling and Netherfield, two very different pests are becoming more active on the same streets: moles pushing up fresh earth in lawns and verges, and grey squirrels looking for a warm, dry loft to see out the winter. Neither is dangerous in the way a wasp sting is, but both can mean real, costly damage if they are left to get on with it.
NestBusters covers both, and this week’s focus is on helping you tell the two apart, spot them early, and know when it is worth calling in a professional rather than reaching for a garden centre trap.
Molehills turning up on lawns and allotments
Mole activity tends to pick up noticeably from mid-autumn as the ground stays damp and worms move closer to the surface, which is exactly the conditions you get around Colwick Park, the Gedling Country Park fringes, and the allotment plots dotted through St Ann’s and Mapperley. Established gardens backing onto green space in Carlton and Gedling are particularly exposed, since moles will happily tunnel straight from parkland or allotment edges into a neighbouring lawn overnight.
The giveaway is a line of fresh, crumbly soil heaps (not the flatter, more scattered mounds left by ants or worms), often appearing in a fairly straight run across a lawn, bowling green, or vegetable bed. A single mole can shift a surprising amount of earth in a week, and the tunnelling itself can undermine shallow-rooted plants, damage lawn mower blades on hidden mounds, and leave allotment beds with collapsed, uneven ground.
Humane trapping is the only legal and effective way to deal with an active mole run in a garden — poison baits for moles are not something we use, and DIY traps bought online are frequently placed in the wrong spot or checked too late to be humane. A proper survey of the tunnel system first makes all the difference to getting it right in one visit rather than three.
Grey squirrels eyeing up lofts and roof voids
At the same time, grey squirrels across Mapperley Park, the tree-lined streets near Colwick Park, and the older semis and terraces through Gedling and Netherfield are starting their autumn search for a denning site, and a loft with even a small gap at the eaves or soffit is an easy win for them. Once in, they strip loft insulation for bedding, and — this is the expensive part — they will chew through electrical wiring, which is a recognised fire risk insurers take seriously.
Early signs are scratching or scampering noises in the loft or wall cavities, particularly around dawn and dusk, chewed timber or insulation pulled into a nest shape, and droppings that are larger and more rounded than mouse droppings. If you have mature trees overhanging the roofline — common on the older avenues around Mapperley and the parkland-adjacent roads in Gedling — it is worth a look at the roofline each autumn before a squirrel finds its own way in.
Removal needs to be done humanely and in a way that actually stops them coming back: trapping and relocating the squirrel is only half the job, the entry point then needs proofing with durable materials, since squirrels will gnaw straight through anything softer than metal mesh or hard-wearing sealant.
Telling the two apart
If you are not sure which you are dealing with, the location is usually the first clue: fresh soil heaps on a lawn or bed point to moles working underground, while noise and droppings coming from a loft or roof space point to squirrels working above you. Moles will never come inside a house; squirrels will never leave molehill-style mounds in a garden. A quick inspection settles it either way.
What to do now
For moles: check lawns and allotment plots for fresh heaps appearing in a line, and avoid treading them down repeatedly, which just tells you where the mole currently is without solving anything. For squirrels: take five minutes this week to look at your roofline and eaves for gaps, chewed timber, or a squirrel visibly going in and out — much easier to proof now than once a nest is established.
NestBusters UK Ltd covers Carlton, Mapperley, St Ann’s, Gedling, Netherfield and the rest of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire for humane mole control and squirrel removal and proofing. Call 0742 984 9483 or visit nottinghampest.co.uk to book a survey.
