How to deter Squirrels?

[Littlejon Dsgn]

We had a heck of a time with squirrels (an entire family of them) had about 8 of them living under our deck. Tried everything, we eventualy had to trap them and relocate them (all were relocated to the same spot withen 3 days. No harm to the squirrels, they went into the cage and the door shut.

[2slo]

Originally Posted by Pauhana

I use this in the feeders and the buggers don't both my feeders anymore

http://www.duncraft.com/Coles-Flaming-Squirrels

Originally Posted by kinghong1970

dunno if it works... but a local nature center strung up some pet soda bottles on a horizontal line where they hang feeders... i guess it'll spin and give the squirrels a bit of a fall?

i have my feeders hung up on a metal J hook rod... seems they can't climb those.

Originally Posted by Littlejon Dsgn

We had a heck of a time with squirrels (an entire family of them) had about 8 of them living under our deck. Tried everything, we eventualy had to trap them and relocate them (all were relocated to the same spot withen 3 days. No harm to the squirrels, they went into the cage and the door shut.

Thanks fellas - good info

[Phoenixkh]

We have lots of squirrels and our feeder is hung from a tall pine tree. They can get on this feeder but can't get the food: http://www.amazon.com/Brome-1024-Squ...dp/B0007LQ3RQ/

It isn't cheap but it works. The only problem we have no is raccoons. I'm involved in a man vs. nature saga here but I have the needle nose vise grips holding the upper cone in place and another one holding the feeder in place on the hook. Time will tell... it's been a week and the feeder is still standing. I caught the raccoon trying to knock it down before I had added the second vise grips to the top of the cone. I kept him at bay but eventually, I had to go to sleep and the feeder was on the ground the next morning. So far, not only am I not smarter than a 5th grader but not as smart as a raccoon. We'll see.

[2slo]

Originally Posted by Phoenixkh

We have lots of squirrels and our feeder is hung from a tall pine tree. They can get on this feeder but can't get the food: http://www.amazon.com/Brome-1024-Squ...dp/B0007LQ3RQ/

It isn't cheap but it works. The only problem we have no is raccoons. I'm involved in a man vs. nature saga here but I have the needle nose vise grips holding the upper cone in place and another one holding the feeder in place on the hook. Time will tell... it's been a week and the feeder is still standing. I caught the raccoon trying to knock it down before I had added the second vise grips to the top of the cone. I kept him at bay but eventually, I had to go to sleep and the feeder was on the ground the next morning. So far, not only am I not smarter than a 5th grader but not as smart as a raccoon. We'll see.

Thanks Kim, that looks like a well designed feeder. We don't have any Racoons but I'll bet they are as much of a nuisance as Squirrels, if not more.
As a stop gap until I get some hot suet made I've taken to only feeding the birds a small amount at a time and, since my kids are off school for the summer, they are on 'Squirrel patrol' when they are playing outside. When they see a Squirrel they clap their hands until it runs away up a tree. It doesn't work for long but it's harmless and it helps keep the kids occupied

[mikeengles]

Hello

Get PVC covered garden wire and thread it through 6 empty plastic coke bottles and then suspend this across the garden, perhaps on trees. Hang the feeder 3 bottles in on the wire. Green bottles look good
You get twice the fun. Birds on the feeder and watching squirrels trying to run along the bottles, that roll under them.

Mike Engles

[filerunner]

We put a squirrel feeder on each of two trees. They look like chairs and you stick a cob of feed corn on them. The squirrels love them even though they still go after bird seed, they spend far more time sitting on the squirrel feeders. Also, they don't seem to attract more squirrels, just the ones we normaly have.

[2slo]

Originally Posted by mikeengles

Hello

Get PVC covered garden wire and thread it through 6 empty plastic coke bottles and then suspend this across the garden, perhaps on trees. Hang the feeder 3 bottles in on the wire. Green bottles look good
You get twice the fun. Birds on the feeder and watching squirrels trying to run along the bottles, that roll under them.

Mike Engles

Originally Posted by filerunner

We put a squirrel feeder on each of two trees. They look like chairs and you stick a cob of feed corn on them. The squirrels love them even though they still go after bird seed, they spend far more time sitting on the squirrel feeders. Also, they don't seem to attract more squirrels, just the ones we normaly have.

Thanks and welcome to the forum.

[recrisp]

I got to thinking, I had mentioned that I shoot the squirrels with my BB gun, and I omitted something, that they were also tearing up the outside of my house. They chew on the parts of the house where the roof begins, they have also have gotten into our attic, they have chewed two (LARGE) places on each side of the front of our house, so they are really destructive.
We planted way too many oak trees over 30 years ago, so it's kind of our fault, but we were young (and stupid) back then, so that is what attracts ours.

I just didn't want to be thought of as heartless, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
By the way, we tried trapping ours too, they won't go for that, we have successfully trapped many, many feral cats with the same cages though.
(Which we has spayed and neutered, then released)

Carry on, I don't want to deter this anymore than I already have, but to say one last thing, eventually, the squirrels will find the place home, and when they do, the multiply VERY quick!

Randy

[2slo]

Well Randy, I don't want to tempt fate by saying that squirrels haven't chewed the side of our house yet, but you know what I mean
One definition of irony might be the following. Whilst photographing birds recently I've taken to getting the odd shot of the squirrels which come down to feed. One such shot, this one:



I posted to my Flikr account and thought no more about it until I got a message from a squirrel lovers website (OMGsquirrels.com) asking if they could use the pic. Sure, no problem. Next thing I know it's chosen as their squirrel photo of the week, beating others who have gone out of their way to take squirrel shots. Irony indeed

[recrisp]

Heheheh, yeah, that is irony! heheheh

I take shots (with my camera) of them also, I really want to like them, but they make it hard, plus my wife is always after me to leave them alone.
I told her that if she is the one that fixes the front, then I will leave them alone. heheh

That is a very nice shot of yours though, and I can see why they wanted it, and it was nice of you to oblige. (Y'all's squirrels are a LOT prettier than ours though, our are not bad looking, but are much more plain than the one in the picture)

Randy

[2slo]

Originally Posted by recrisp

Heheheh, yeah, that is irony! heheheh

I take shots (with my camera) of them also, I really want to like them, but they make it hard, plus my wife is always after me to leave them alone.
I told her that if she is the one that fixes the front, then I will leave them alone. heheh

That is a very nice shot of yours though, and I can see why they wanted it, and it was nice of you to oblige. (Y'all's squirrels are a LOT prettier than ours though, our are not bad looking, but are much more plain than the one in the picture)

Randy

Thanks .

Well, the hot suet is made and will be put out tomorrow. I'll be watching with interest. I doubt whether the squirrel lovers will be impressed if I post a shot of a squirrel with steam coming out of it's ears (etc ) but I'll update when I see how they get on with it.

[recrisp]

Originally Posted by 2slo

Thanks .

Well, the hot suet is made and will be put out tomorrow. I'll be watching with interest. I doubt whether the squirrel lovers will be impressed if I post a shot of a squirrel with steam coming out of it's ears (etc ) but I'll update when I see how they get on with it.

That won't be a problem at all, ALL of the squirrel lovers will be watching the Olympics!

Let us know how that goes though, that will be interesting to know.

Randy

[2slo]

Update. Since Sunday gone, the daily special has been hot suet. The birds have enjoyed it (in fact there's more birds than ever). Squirrels on the other hand have been noticeable by their absence on the bird table. Plenty of them still on the ground and in the trees but I haven't seen one on the table eating the suet. I have noticed the suet lasting a lot longer, even though there's always plenty of birds on it, so I'm cautiously optomistic that Squirrels don't like it hot

[snyderman]

Seems that no matter what the solution, they squirrels will eventually figure it out. I have two feeders called 'squirrel buster.' The unit has a weighted perch you can set so that things heavier than birds close down the feed supply.

Had them up for 3 years now. Early on, the squirrels got the idea and moved on. Last season, they've (same set of squirrels) have figured out of they launch themselves from the deck rails and get a good hold on the perch that surrounds the feeder, they can dislodge the entire feeder from the hook and raid the food from the feeder now lying on the ground.

One time I found one of the two feeders about 20' from the hook. I think the large female red squirrel was trying to drag it out to the back of the lot to the tree line.

Tree rats. All of them!

dave

[heez10]

Squirrels do not like safflower seeds, neither do bears and I had a problem with both!