Squirrel Update

posted by Jaitu at 14:04

The squirrel activity continues apace in our loft space. During the rough weather over the weekend it sounded like our fluffy little pest was moving in both his family and their furniture.

Towards the end of last year I put three poison trays in the loft. These were left untouched despite the frequent visits from our furry little pointy-clawed sharp-toothed friend. Over the Christmas period I tried to attract some interest in them by mixing broken peanuts and chocolate into the poison pellets. While I was up there last week installing the ultrasonic pest repellent I noticed the trays had still not even been nibbled.

The ultrasonic repeller is a battery operated device which is activated when the built-in PIR detects movement. It then screams at a very high pitch until the movement stops and then resets a few seconds later. When it switches off it produces an audible 'squeak' as the frequency falls. I initially set the frequency such that I could hear it come on when I was in the loft but back in the house proper with the loft hatch closed I could only hear the squeak as it shut down. It turns out I set the operational tone when not in the loft just inside Naomi's range of hearing and just outside of my own. Naomi could tell me when it detected motion even if we couldn't hear the squirrel moving. (I've since set the frequency even higher).
The repeller, currently, doesn't so much repel the squirrel as give it pause for thought.

The pattern of behaviour seems to go something like this:
Squirrel enters loft.
Repeller activates.
Squirrel freezes.
Repeller 'squeaks' off.
Squirrel moves.
Repeller activates.
Squirrel freezes.
Repeller 'squeaks' off.
Squirrel moves.
You get the idea...

This is not exactly the desired effect and I have emailed the company I bought it from for their recommendation of where best to set the frequency control for maximum squirrel repelling power. I have in the meantime ordered some traps which, ideally, I will not have to deploy.

I have also now placed a motion activated light up there although this may just let the squirrel see what it is doing.

While putting the light in, I noticed that the ultrasound has apparently had one interesting side-effect. Since the repeller has been in place the squirrel appears to have gained an appetite for peanuts and chocolate.