It’s light in the mornings before I head off to the office these days so Spring can’t be far off. The impending season change is also marked by the heightened activity from grey squirrels in my garden.
I might enjoy watching their acrobatics, but grey squirrels are pests. We all know that these are illegal aliens and have decimated population of native red squirrels. That’s only half the story, though. According to reports this week, grey squirrels are responsible for £20M worth of damage to homes in Britain.
Squirrels like to move into loft spaces and sheds over winter and can cause serious damage to properties. The Daily Telegraph reports how Glen and Laura Borner’s three-bedroom home in Hertfordshire burned down after squirrels chewed through electrical wiring in the loft.
These destructive tendencies are not confined to suburbia, either. The Forestry Commission says squirrels also cause more than £10M of damage to woodland trees each year.
So what’s to be done?
Given our preoccupation with sustainable food sources, and in the interests of moving away from the blatantly wasteful supermarket model of food shopping, I suggest trapping and eating squirrels. The meat is lean and, I can report from first-hand experience, rather tasty.
While we’re at it let’s control the numbers of that other menace, the pigeon. Smoked breast in a Caesar salad makes an agreeable appetizer or light lunch.
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