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THE spiralling grey squirrel population in a Nailsworth wood cannot be controlled by traps - because they could upset children, say town councillors.

Members of Nailsworth Town Council have refused to allow the traps to be used in Norton Wood for fear of offending visitors, especially younger ones.

The devices look like large mouse traps and break the squirrel's neck when they snap shut.

Rising numbers of the rodents are stripping beech trees of bark and weakening branches, causing a potential danger to walkers.

But after they were shown the traps by Charlton Abbots, which manages the wood on behalf of the town council, members decided not to use them.

Cllr John Nicholas told the town council that culling the creatures in such a way may upset visitors to the site.

And speaking to the SNJ he reiterated his concerns, saying: "We almost instantly dismissed this.

"This method has been used elsewhere and has proved quite effective but the problem is people can see the squirrel in the trap.

"This is a public woodland which is used by families they may find it distressing."

He said the increase in the squirrel population was caused by people feeding them.

"In several places the wood backs onto residents' gardens and they tend to feed them, either intentionally or unintentionally," he said.

"They manage to get into the bird feeders.

"If they continue destroying the trees there will be no squirrels left because we won't have any habitat left to support them or anything else."

The council has been removing branches which are considered hazardous and is currently assessing the extent of the damage.

"We dealt with the same problem years ago by live trapping," said Cllr Nicholson.

"The squirrels go into the traps to get food and cannot get back out. They are then removed and gassed but in a strange way this is more publicly acceptable.

"We have also talked about the idea of poisoning or organising a shoot under supervision but we don't like these ideas either.

"We want to encourage wildlife in any way we can by doing things like introducing bird boxes but we can't lose sight of the fact that this is a problem."

* How should the squirrel problem in Norton Wood be tackled? Should the traps be used? Are many of us simply too squeamish when it comes to the reality of pest control in the countryside?

8:19am Wednesday 26th March 2008

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