How to Keep Squirrels out of Bird Feeders | 3 Simple Solutions
There’s more than one way to keep squirrels from raiding your bird feeder.
Squirrels are notorious pests when it comes to stealing food that’s been put out for the birds. Here are three ways to keep those stealthy rodents out of bird feeders.
1. Slip the feeder onto a long wire and hang it between two trees, but away from any low branches. Also, string empty thread spools on the wire to act as a further deterrent.
2. Another effective way to keep squirrels out of your bird feeder is to smear gobs of petroleum jelly or car grease on the pole that supports it. You’ll have to clean it up in the spring, but it works. The squirrels hate the feeling of grease on their paws.
3. If your bird feeder sits on a pole and you’re pestered by squirrels stealing the seeds, go to the pet store and buy a squirrel baffle. This is a plastic dome that you attach under the feeder. It curves downward and away from the feeder, providing a barrier against upwardly mobile squirrels. Make sure the baffle is high enough that the squirrels can’t jump past it.
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I have several bird feeder in the yard around my house. so that when the squirrels come around I leave bits of bread, and other treats for them, so that they don’t touch the feeders.
I feed them separtely so that they don’t ruin the feeders.
And when changing the feed, I dump it in the same place as the food, I give the squirrels, and my little chipmunks, really the other animals need a meal once in a while. But this is not on a daily basis, anyway.
We have several hanging feeders as well as suet cakes in holders in our trees where we can see the birds. I also throw out bits of bread, etc., for the crows (and the squirrels). We have spent quite a bit of money on “squirrel proof” feeders that are easily accessed by the smart squirrels. Two or three squirrels can empty a feeder in one day. We have one pole feeder for which we bought a large baffle to go beneath the feeder and that’s the only thing that foils the squirrels.
This year one morning I counted 10 squirrels gorging on the seeds in the feeders and decided, “Enough is enough!” We bought a Have-a-heart trap and baited it with peanut butter. One or two squirrels a day were re-homed after they went in the trap. We took the squirrels several miles from home and let them go in the woods. In all we re-homed 27 squirrels before we took down the feeders for the season. We still have a couple of squirrels running around, but they are not so interested now that there is no banquet for them. Moving the squirrels far away is about the only thing that has worked for us. They had eaten a fortune in sunflower seeds this year.
Safflower seeds are great squirrel deterrents. They are bitter, and the squirrels soon learn to leave them alone. They are sold at feed stores, along with sunflower seeds. They are more expensive, but a bag lasts us a lot longer, because there are no squirrels!
I bribe the squirrels, setting up feeders for sunflower seeds in the hull that the squirrels can get to – at a distance from the mixed-seed feeders intended for birds. Those keep them busy most of the time. Of course, chickadees go for the sunflower too. At my window I have a large cylinder feeder inside a wire cylinder, filled with sunflower chips. The gray squirrels can’t get at the seeds, but a little red squirrel zips right inside the wire, turns his back on the window, and settles down for a feast.
We put our feeder on a 4×4 pole ,on top of a platform. Before attaching the platform we sleeved the pole with stove pipe.( cut down several top inches of pipe in 4 places and bend out. This can then be attached to the bottom of the platform.Screw bird house to the top,fill with seed and watch the fun. We also screwed extra long screws to the 4 sides of the pole,through the pipe to stableize it. And a coat of paint in a garden shade does’nt hurt either.
These are all very interesting solutions. But none of them really get rid of these pests. I have found a company that makes a seed and suet “squirrel free” food. The birds will eat it but not the tree rats. It does not hurt them and they will not eat it at all. It’s made by the Pennington Seed Co. called Hot Pepper Delight, it works like magic, the squirrels hate it.
This sounds like an idea i had heard of, and have been trying to find out if it’s true. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper in your seeds, when a squirrel gets a lick! Well its pretty funny! The part i have been wanting to verify is that supposedly birds do not have taste buds so it doesn’t bother them. Is that true?
That’s good you people are catch -n- release your Tree Rats to our Suburbs and Country sides better shooting during Hunting Season for the Hunters it is a win, win situation for everybody. .Just have to remember Squirrels are territorial and do not like other squirrels moving into there Territory they can get very mean.
With the price of birdseed increasing each season, I really needed to keep the fat squirrels and also rats and mice out of the feeders. I have tried baffles, traps, wires and so-called “squirrel-proof feeders” with no real success. This year we moved our feeders to a metal pole planted away from trees and arbors. Then we applied vasaline to the pole about 3 feet up from the ground, in a 6-7 inch wide band around the pole. It was hilarious watching the squirrels take a leap at the pole, bound up a couple of feet, and then slide back down! They all had to try it, but not more than two or three times. They are quite smart, and have learned to to satisfy themselves with the seed the birds scatter from the feeders, plus dry bread and crackers spread on the ground when I have them. So this is really two solutions in one – fewer sprouting seeds beneath the feeder too! It has been over 100 degrees most days this summer, so the vaseline will need to be reapplied every couple of weeks.
Great ideas . Before i’m done, I’m sure I’ll try them all!!!!