Squirrels, birds, rats, toads…
all good targets for my nephew’s bb gun.
Somehow, I don’t think I’d want to tangle with a toad that could reach a bird feeder.
Well, I didn’t ask “why are squirrels evil?”. They have destroyed two of our bird feeders from their weight and the impact of their jumping. We have put out squirrel food, but when they bring three or four of their friends, it disappears quickly, and by the time we get home, the bird feeder is on the ground in pieces with seed spread everywhere. Our area has lots of beautiful cardinals and colorful finches. We want to lure and feed them so we can look at them. If the squirrels don’t like that, tough nookie.
After reading that, then I think those squirrels deserve this:
http://users.pandora.be/juulkabas/squirrel%20pull.mpeg
If that link doesn’t work, that came from http://www.mentalernie.org/sickmovies_funny.shtml
click on “Squirrel gets sweeped into the air by a trap”.
But seriously, that is still too cruel, so I would go for the yankee flipper.
In the Kingdom of Butter, they are vermin (at least the grey ones are).
Pie might be fiddly due to the generally small size of the joints; a better option might be some kind of casserole; You could probably take a rabbit recipe and just use three or four times as many squirrels (depending on their size).
I too will put out bread and stuff in another feeder, and untold critters finish it off in maybe 24 hours. I’ve seen fox urine at the garden center, but I really don’t want to go so far as to spread musky-smelling pee outside my kitchen window.
And as someone else said, not only do squirrels tend to destroy the gadget that feeds them, the seed itself can be gone in one afternoon.
Thus I find safflower seed to be the best solution, for the simple fact that squirrels do not like it.
On the contrary – see my previous post – it’s very animal-friendly. Handicapped accessible, even.
I just smell :eek: a marketing opportunity here. What a markup market there must be for packaging effluent for the affluent.
I don’t know about that…it can’t be easy training the foxes to pee in those little bottles.
Regarding the Yankee Flipper - it is beatable. This column I remembered from a couple years ago said that it took the author’s local squirrel less than a week to figure it out.
Unfortunately, the link to the video of it trying no longer works. It IS awfully funny to watch.
When it comes to bird feeders, squirrels are very wasteful.
A couple of hours after I first put out my feeder at my new house, I looked out the window to discover a squirrel hanging upside down from the pole, his back feet gripping the top, using his hands to sort through the bird feed for what he liked, slinging the unwanted stuff onto the lawn. He’d already wasted half of the feed before I shooed him away.
He has a feeder of his own, dammit!
Anyone who has seen the show Daylight Robbery knows there is no such thing as a squirrel proof feeder.
If you have all those untold critters, then you already have musky smelling pee outside your kitchen window. But thanks for the tip on where to find fox urine. 
I did see an English show on PBS a while ago that put squirrels through their paces. I can’t remember the name but I do remember they found one feeder that was squirrel proof. It was made by an American company but I don’t remember the name. The premise behind the feeder was that the weight of the squirrel would close it. The shelf the birds stood on to eat would swing down and close when the heavier weight of a squirrel was on it.
heh
We’ve indeed had the occasional midnight raccoons; perhaps they have musky pee but I’ve not smelled it. I think our mastiffs keep the foxes away. But not those pesky squirrels!
Loach
I think I know of the pole feeder of which you speak. A neighbor has it and every time I walk by a squirrel is just leaving it; I can hear the shutting sound. Not sure if the squirrels keep going to it because they are successful or because they are persistant. I will try to take the time to observe for awhile today. I don’t really want a pole feeder but maybe it comes in a hanging version.
Squirrels are indeed wasteful, but I think the ground-feeding birds appreciate all of the seed that falls down.
:rolleyes:
It’s not that they’re bigger than squirrels; it’s that they are carnivores. Liberal could have much the same effect by peeing on his bushes himself, but that would probably cause his neighbors to make unkind comments as to his character.
Our local zoo (Como) sells lion pee for this purpose; it’s also supposed to keep deer away. Don’t know if it works.
We have a bit metal squirrel-proof feeder that seems to work; it’s got a sloping roof that sticks out past the shelf the birds land on, and the shelf they land on is actually a spring-loaded platform that, with the weight of a squirrel (or a sufficiently fat bird), drops down and shuts off access to the seeds.
I also tried to keep the squirrels out of our first feeder by stringing it on a horizontal wire that stretched across the yard. I moved it farther out into the yard a couple feet every few days until the squirrels couldn’t… quite… reach it. Fun to watch, and entertaining for the whole family.
For those of you who don’t understand the desire not to feed tree rats: You have obviously never had squirrels burrow through the walls of your house into your attic and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. Lucky you.
Well, I just happen to be employed by that font of bird knowledge…Bird Watcher’s Digest…
And here’s the ‘squirrel’ question in particular.
So I was at the Wild Bird store today. I looked at all of the feeders, esp the ‘squirrel proof’ ones. The women there were pretty upfront about what does and doesn’t work. The house-like feeder which snaps shut can indeed be foiled by squirrels, if they can manage to get to it from above. Getting to feeders from above seems to be a recurring theme with squirrels. The lady showed me one feeder which she says seems to be, so far, a success. It is a variation on the globe-shaped cage feeder. It costs about $65 dollars and I think for now I will stick to my safflower seed.
I can’t vouch for this 100% as I haven’t tried it personally. However, a usually reliable source once told me that squirrels won’t get past ordinary wire wool. Obviously if Mr Squirrel can just jump over it or bypass the stuff, he will, but if there is a sufficient quantity, such that Mr Squirrel has to actually try to clamber over or across the stuff, he won’t and can’t. Apparently, it feels REALLY nasty and uncomfortable to them. Anyone know for sure if this works? I do know that it definitely works for mice.
That describes the feeder I linked to in a previous post.
That explains why this one works for me…since it is mounted on a pole away from any trees the squirrels can’t get to it from above. Interestingly I just for the first time bought safflower seed, not to keep the squirrels away but in an attempt to discourage house sparrows.
Ethilrist you may have been being facetious but I’m not sure human urine would work as well as fox urine (if indeed that works at all). Unlike humans foxes are predators that have co-inhabited North America with the squirrels, and been dining on them, for millions of years. The squirrels may not recognize human urine as belonging to a predator since there are no primates native to the area.
Jeez, guys. :smack:
Hasn’t anybody ever heard of mixing capsaicin (red pepper) into the birdseed??
Birds don’t mind it (apparently don’t taste it), but squirrels and other mammals hate it. Squirrels, et al, will usually be deterred after one try.
I don’t know if there’s a cheaper way of getting it than buying powdered red pepper from the spice section of the baking aisle in the supermarket. However, it doesn’t take a whole lot per feeder refill, and after you’ve done it for a while (at least 3 refills, you can cut back to just a bit. The critters will still be able to smell it and will leave the birdfood alone. Then, if you’re so minded to also feed them, they’ll soon learn to go straight to their feeder.