The problem of tufty-tailed squirrels gnawing through BT phone cables drew some interesting emails from readers.

No sooner had we run the story of the couple from Berkshire troubled by a furry pest, Sean wrote to tell us that he also suffered "squirrel damage" which cost him £150 to repair.

Some years ago I worked with someone who had exactly the same problem, and after several repairs of the line the BT man suggested a permanent fix might be found by calling the pest controllers.

The pest controller turned up and after weeks of attempted poisoning and trapping in the loft almost gave up but suggested one last try. He fixed a board on top of the fence that was the squirrel's regular entry and exit route and liberally coated it with contact adhesive.

Hey presto! In the morning there was the squirrel frozen in mid-scamper like a Ray Harryhausen monster during production.

Service was permanently resumed shortly after. All's well that ends well - except for the squirrel that is.

For more tales of Tufty check out this special from Scary Squirrel. ®

Related stories

Badgers ate my phone line
Squirrels blamed for gnawing through BT phone line
900 BT biz punters snagged by BT 'system problem'
Glasgow vandals cut 5,000 phone lines
Oops! BT bills man £25,000 for cut cable