I stopped feeding the birds two years ago. It wasn’t so much feeding the birds that was the problem. All I was really doing was feeding the squirrels. They jumped up onto the squirrel proof feeders, they jumped down onto them, they flew sideways onto them, they cut them down, broke them open or just banged them around until all the seed had come out. Birds really weren’t involved at all.
I had squirrel baffles and long clothesline way up in trees and away from branches. I had them attached to perfectly vertical sides of my house. I tried fishing line, supposedly squirrels can’t see it to climb down or cut. I varied the seed. Perhaps there was a type of seed squirrels wouldn’t bother with.
No such luck. I grew to hate squirrels. I was wasting my time and my money.
I would like to feed the birds this winter and, at least, minimize the theft and destruction of the squirrels. Any suggestions??
You could take a look at some of the newer squirrel-proof feeders on the market.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe Satan Claus may drop one down your chimney this year?
The most brutal method may be to place a squirrel-sized Havahart trap at the base of your feeders. They're suckers for a small glob of peanut butter coated with birdseed, so can be trapped reliably within minutes.
Grey squirrels left in the trap die in a couple of days; red squirrels don't last more than 24 hours.
You can also put the trap with live squirrel under a tarp, feed a hose from your exhaust pipe to the tarp, and gas 'em.
If that's not to your liking, you can get squirrel feed (cheap cracked corn, or dried feed corn on the cob), and place it on the ground away from your bird seed. They're lazy animals, so if you make it easier for them to eat corn than birdseed...