SQUIRRELS....SQUIRRELS....and more SQUIRRELS!!!! (shop, eat, title)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Your best bet is a feeder on a pole with a raccoon-proof baffle. This will keep squirrels and, even more important, raccoons (which can empty an entire feeder full of 10lbs of seed in an evening), from devastating your feeders. Just make sure the feeder is far enough from a tree or limb so that the squirrel can't jump on top of the feeder.
Beyond that, I've never seen a squirrel-proof feeder. Those which "collapse" under the squirrel's weight help reduce the carnage, but they won't stop it completely.
One option is to grease the pole - also entertaining.
My folks had a bird feeder where the perch was attached to the roof on a hinge. If a heavier bird landed on the perch it would lower the roof and cut off access to the feed. Worked pretty well on squirrels, until they started working in pairs - one on the perch and the other on the roof as counter-balance. Usually they would just brush the bird seed out and go back down to the ground to feast.
We were having the same problem until we purchased a baffle from Lowes Home Improvement about two weeks ago. It is working like a dream and the squirrels are reduced to grovelling on the ground for spilt seed.
These baffles do work, one just has to make sure that baffles are on the trunks of all trees which could provide an entry point for the squirrels to the canopies of your orchards.
Have a hart traps also work with a little peanut butter or apple. It also gives the user the option to relocate or dispatch of the squirrel in a manner your heart and conscious will allow!
eBay is loaded with quality squirrel-proof feeders.
Look for the ones with spring loaded perches and the ones with a 2-inch square steel mesh around them. Birds get in, squirrels cannot. They also have same for suet. Very effective and none are over $30.00
Wal-Mart has quality suet and seed at great prices.
There is nothing you can do to stop the squirrel menace. I was under siege by those bushy-tailed thieves back in FL. I thought my feeders were safe when I moved here, since they hang from a balcony now.
I thought wrong.
One day I came home, and saw one of those little monsters hanging upside down by its back feet like a bat stuffing its face with sunflower seeds.
There is virtually nothing you can do. The super expensive squirrel-proof feeders with weight sensors help, but I've seen them just swing the feeders until seed falls out. My mother set up a separate feeder for the squirrels on the opposite side of the yard to try to keep them away from the bird ones. She thinks of it like paying the mob not to destroy your business.
It has reduced the number of squirrels in the bird feeders, but only a little. And now she has to buy twice as much food!
But they do have a lot of venomous snakes and spiders. At least most squirrels won't kill you.
The thread is about SQUIRRELS. No one mentioned snakes and spider!
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