SQUIRREL FEEDER

[J T]

Or, you can just use bird feeder plans, same thing in the end. Personally, looking at this makes me start thinking about making something that would really make squirrels work to get to the food - and amuse me watching them. Plastic, sheet metal, slippery floor wax, immediately come to mind. Hmm, maybe something with compressed air - I just thought of the James Bond Aston Martin and its passenger ejection seat. Sometimes it just takes small things to amuse me.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

[John]

My late mother-in-law had her bird feeder in an open area of the yard (no jumping from a tree branch) and mounted on a smooth metal pole - which she regularly greased with Vaseline. No squirrels made it to the feeder, but some really did try ;-)

John

[Greg G]

That's for sure.

There are many bird feeders here. I've tried just about everything to keep the squirrels out. Nothing works for long. They are the most persistent little rodents I've ever encountered. They even ate through the house walls before replacing the siding with fibrous concrete.

I've tried baffles, they leap 30 feet from tree limbs above and land, sometimes, on the feeders. Makes quite a racket when they hit. I've tried grease, silicon, infra-red detectors rigged to water jets, slingshots, and electric shock. I'll have to admit to laughing pretty hard watching them leap into the air, writhing in confusion upon application of a good shock. But they fixed the problem by severing the electrical cord in the one spot it was exposed - repeatedly. Smart little bas#$*&s. They won - I gave up trying.

Greg G.

[J T]

Thu, Dec 6, 2007, 4:04pm [e-mail] (John) doth sayeth: My late mother-in-law had her bird feeder in an open area of the yard (no jumping from a tree branch) and mounted on a smooth metal pole - which she regularly greased with Vaseline. No squirrels made it to the feeder, but some really did try ;-)

Well yeah, that's about the only way, and while it would be amusing, that's not much of a anti-squirrel challenge.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

[J T]

Thu, Dec 6, 2007, 4:17pm From: [e-mail] (Greg=A0G.) J T said: Or, you can just use bird feeder plans, same thing in the end. That's for sure. Personally, looking at this makes me start thinking about making something that would really make squirrels work... Sometimes it just takes small things to amuse me. There are many bird feeders here. I've tried just about everything to keep the squirrels out. Nothing works for long. They are the most persistent little rodents I've ever encountered. They even ate through the house walls before replacing the siding with fibrous concrete. I've tried baffles, they leap 30 feet from tree limbs above and land, sometimes, on the feeders. Makes quite a racket when they hit. I've tried grease, silicon, infra-red detectors rigged to water jets, slingshots, and electric shock. I'll have to admit to laughing pretty hard watching them leap into the air, writhing in confusion upon application of a good shock. But they fixed the problem by severing the electrical cord in the one spot it was exposed - repeatedly. Smart little bas#$*&s. They won - I gave up trying.

I saw a show on TV, Discovery, or Animal Planet, probably. Showed scientists' efforts to try to outwit squirrels raiding 'bird' feeders. They fialed miserabl, the scientists that is. But got some interesting, and hilarious, results. At one feeder the squirrels could not reach it in any way except by jumping from a tree branch to the side of a house, where they then jumped to the feeder. The scientists found that a degree wrong angle, any direction, and the squirrel would miss the feeder. If I recall right, it only took about 7 tries for the squirrels to catch on. They also tried clear plastic tubes (squirrel trails?), and so on. Something like this, Rube Goldberg style, is about what I was thinking of trying. I don't figure on beating them, too many trees for one thing, but should provide a lot of amusement, both from watching the squirrels, and from thinking up new alternatives.

The little bastards use my roof as a shorcu or something too. I'll here what shounds like a tiny horse running across my roof every so often. Amazing how such a small animal can sound so large running across a roof.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

[Lee]

This is worth the time to watch.

I saw a show on TV, Discovery, or Animal Planet, probably. Showed scientists' efforts to try to outwit squirrels raiding 'bird' feeders. They fialed miserabl, the scientists that is. But got some interesting, and hilarious, results. At one feeder the squirrels could not reach it in any way except by jumping from a tree branch to the side of a house, where they then jumped to the feeder. The scientists found that a degree wrong angle, any direction, and the squirrel would miss the feeder. If I recall right, it only took about 7 tries for the squirrels to catch on. They also tried clear plastic tubes (squirrel trails?), and so on. Something like this, Rube Goldberg style, is about what I was thinking of trying. I don't figure on beating them, too many trees for one thing, but should provide a lot of amusement, both from watching the squirrels, and from thinking up new alternatives.

The little bastards use my roof as a shorcu or something too. I'll here what shounds like a tiny horse running across my roof every so often. Amazing how such a small animal can sound so large running across a roof.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

[tom]

I've got two these. They work.

[Charley]

If you are really trying to feed just the birds and keep the squirrels from eating the seed there's only one feeder on the market that I know of that is absolutely squirrel proof. With one of these you can feed the birds and get real entertainment when the squirrels try to eat. I know of two installations that have been feeding only the birds for several years. The squirrels have to eat what the birds drop on the ground, or they can try to eat from the feeder and get the ride of their lives instead.

sure to watch the video on this website. It's hilarious.

Charley

[GROVER]

I heard that Lyndon Johnson fancied a late night snack from the White House kitchen of a squirrel sandwich, most probably served on Texas toast,

There's no accounting for taste. Joe G

[J T]

Fri, Dec 7, 2007, 11:32am (EST-3) [e-mail] (GROVER) doth sayeth: I heard that Lyndon Johnson fancied a late night snack from the White House kitchen of a squirrel sandwich, most probably served on Texas toast, =A0=A0There's no accounting for taste.

Spoken like a man that's never tasted squirrel. Very tasty, but I find it quite rich, maybe from the nut diet. Squirrel gravy is delicious.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.