Here’s my list of ways to squirrel proof your bird feeders, some are practical and some are just plain fun.
From least to most effective:
10. Squirrel away hot pepper additive. It’s not as popular as it once was, the squirrels seem to acquire a taste for it. The main reason I never sold it is the warning to not get it in your eyes when filling your feeders. If it irritates your eyes, what does it do to birds when it blows in their eyes? It’s expensive, doesn’t work great and has the potential to harm birds.
9. Install a very clean glass panel between the squirrels take off point and the bird feeder. You’ll also want to tripod mount your video camera on the feeder side of the glass and win a bunch of money from Funniest Home Videos.
8. Chase the squirrels away with a remote control off road toy truck and/or helicopter,
depending on your needs.
7. Put the receiver end of an old baby monitor in the feeder, you can yell at the squirrels, have the dog bark or play hawk sounds into the transmitter. If you train the dog right this can work while your away too, at least until they get used to it, which is usually about 5 minutes.
6. The trap and release program. This is a very popular form of squirrel control in the
Moncton area….very popular, every day I talk to people from the north end who drive their squirrels to the south end, west to east and vice versa. Do you see where this is going? People think the same squirrels are finding their way back to the yards, I wonder if they aren’t getting a drive. I tried this once and found that when I relocated my old time dominant pair because they got into my barn, I ended up with about 15 subordinate squirrels that until then were being chased away.
5. Plastic or polycarbonate domes over the feeders work well if they are placed right. They also have the added benefit of weather proofing the feeder. The main problem is cost, you need one for each feeder you put out and you usually need the largest ones to be the most effective. I had a small dome over a suet feeder and the squirrels learned to hold on with a hind leg, shimmy over the edge and when the dome tipped enough they would let go and grab the suet cage on the way down. The most fun we had for a long time was when we added a second larger dome under the small one and watched the squirrels ricochet off and land on the ground, very unimpressed. Domes should be hung from the lowest branch on a tree or on a cloths line, they don’t work on the shepherds hook hangers.
4. A cloths line is a great bird feeder hanger, it’s cheap and can usually be placed higher than most hangers if you need to. You can thread it through cans or short pieces of hose to make rollers on each end to knock the squirrels off. Or use in conduction with domes to make a nice station.
3. Squirrel proof feeders work with varying degrees of success. Make sure you read the fine print as a lot of them are effective only against gray squirrels, most of the caged feeders have a large enough opening to allow reds in, (they will thank you for the safe haven and diner), the one that spins the squirrel off isn’t triggered by one red but two will set it off. The last time I saw two red squirrels on a feeder at once was five minutes before I saw them mating. Two minutes after that, they were fighting again. There is apparently a feeder that delivers a mild electric shock when a squirrel touches the tray and the port at the same time. This isn’t necessary. The best one I found is the Squirrel Buster Plus, (spring the extra for the “Plus”, the regular one doesn’t work), the weight of the squirrel closes off the feeder ports. The best part of this feeder is that it’s totally adjustable and can be set to even keep Grackles and Jays off. I actually sell more of these to keep off Pigeons than for squirrels, they are quite expensive but a great way to feed Cardinals, Grosbeaks, etc. if Pigeons won’t leave the feeders alone.
2. Diversionary feeders, that is, squirrel feeders, add to the effectiveness of the other squirrel proofing techniques. If you make it hard for them to get on some feeders and easy to get on others the will usually go where it’s easy. There are lots of these on the market, most involve trying to get the squirrels to eat corn. I’ve found you will have to offer something a little better to be most effective.
1. The most effective thing we have for keeping the squirrels of the feeders is the 4-10. Now let me explain, when we started selling to a distributer we had to give every thing a code and the code should reflect what the item is. We make a 10 foot pole with 4 hangers, I didn’t want to call it the 10-4 because it reminded me of that old CB radio song. So I called the 4-10…...this went along without anyone saying a thing until one day in the shop a nice older lady asked me what was best for keeping squirrels of the feeder. I replied “that would be the old 4-10” and turned to point it out. That was when she whacked me with her purse, called me an awful person and stormed out. In my defense, just because I live in Albert County doesn’t mean I know that a 4-10 is a shot gun and would be highly recommended for squirrel. It was totally innocent and if you are the lady or know her, I apologize. So, the best thing we have is the 4-10 with a baffle on the pole below the feeders, this is cheaper than 1 squirrel proof feeder and is also effective against raccoons.
written by Dwayne Biggar at The Bird Garden
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