Are squirrels a pest?

Much was made of the pesky nature of the squirrel on today's morning news!! It eats all your bird food, digs holes all over the garden to hide its nuts and then digs loads more holes trying to find them again. But is it all bad?

There are good things to say too: It gives great pleasure to all of us humans who love to see it tackling assault courses in the pursuit of a peanut or two. It generally looks pretty cute and is very photogenic. Ultimately it could be argued that we are the pests!! They were here first and we chase them from our prize gardens - so who is the pest? Good question!! Look...