My parents are driven mad by them eating all the fruit they grow. They used to be able to grow msny apples, plums, strawberries, etc, etc, in their large garden but with the increase in squirrel numbers it is just a waste of time. They strip every fruit and every berry. Even attempts to net fruit trees, or build chickenwire cages around the berry bushes have been a waste of time, they are always clever enough to get in.

We have no compunction about keeping rats and pigeons off our property, by destructive means where appropriate, why not grey squirrels? Granity says squirrel is tasty, I don't know, but woodpigeon is certainly very tasty.

Round where I live, introduced squirrels are less of a problem, but introduced rabbits and introduced fat dormice (Glis glis) are both problems. Rabbits eat my veg and certain flowers unless I protect them. Even been known to take bamboo shoots. We have no compunction about shooting rabbits to eat them, or as pests. Apparently in Spain, where they are native, they now have a shortage of rabbits because of deliberately introduced diseases, and this is the main cause of the reduction of the Iberian lynx, now the rarest wild cat, because the Iberian lynx is a rabbit specialist. Perhaps we should introduce the iberian lynx to Britain. We used to have lynx, and many people think the Iberian lynx is just a sub-species. A rabbit eating specialist lynx shouldn't be too much of a problem here. The eagle owl appears to have reintroduced itself here, whether by escape or flying here isn't clear, and is not proving a problem precisely becaues it is a rabbit specialist. Unfortunately not too many rocky cliffs for them to nest on in Buckinghamshire.

The situation concerning fat dormice is curious. They are a problem in the house rather than the garden. Because they are classified by the EU as endangered (which they are in their native habitat), you can't just trap them (even though they aren't native or endangered here). And if you use live traps, because they are non-native you can't just release them back into the wild. Bizarrely, this latter restriction doesn't attach to rabbits, even though they are just as non-native. So you have to get the council around to catch them who then take them away. I used to think the council must have a large shed full of dormice waiting for them to die of old age, but I now konw that they "humanely destroy" them. Quite why they are allowed to "humanely destroy" when I'm not allowed to destructively trap them for myself is utterly bizarre. Actually because they are rather cute, I'd rather like to see one, but I never have, even though they are supposed to be locally very common. Also odd that they don't seem to spread very much.

There really is no answer to this one. I love seeing the introduced parakeets we now have in much of the south-east, although they haven't got to our area yet. Maybe we'll be seeing them as a nuisance in a few more decades.