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Squirrels
Chrissy the gardener
Posts: 1,072
I guess no bird feeder is totally squirrel proof,
i don't know if you can see but the one squirrel is actually inside the nut feeder.
sorry I couldn't get a better picture and yes the squirrel got out ok.
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This nut feeder has got a cage around and the squirrel manages to get into the cage.
ive had to bring it in (the feeder that is not the squirrel)I don't want the squirrel to get stuck,silly I know but I would feel awful if it got stuck.
Great photo Chrissy! Naughty, but very cute!!
When I fed the birds at work we had a feeder which was a plastic tube with holes in it for feeding sunflower hearts - it had a lid which clipped over the top very firmly! One day I looked up from my desk to see a squirrel head down and almost totally inside the plastic tube, eating his way down to the bottom! No wonder those sunflower hearts had been disappearing at a rate of knots! You should have seen him squirm and struggle to get out of the tube as I walked across the lawn towards him breathing fire!
After that I had to fix the lid down with one of those spring clips you get on the end of a dog's lead
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
mix the nuts with the hottest chilli powder you can find, it only takes one or two bites for them to take the hint!
I think squirrels are like their ground-based rat cousins - if they can get their head through a hole then they can get their whole body through it!
I'll try that treehugger
Sometimes if you have a problem with squirrels it is an idea to give them their own separate feeder with peanuts in (the type with a flip lid) so they don't use the bird feeders.
My sister does this and finds it works as long as she remembers to fill their feeder.
The squirrels tend to go for the easiest option.
I am on the Isle of Wight and we only have red squirrels here so I would actually like to have a squirrel problem!!
Don't bother with chilli, pepper, onion, soap, chicken wire that allows a squirrel head to get through, feeders with slides that go over the seed feeder - they learn to hold those up, they can and will get into everything!! Any hole a bird can get through, so can a squirrel. We moved here 18 years ago, since when I have been fighting the squirrels. All my bulb pots are covered with holly, berberis, wire etc., they have still dug out some of the bulbs. They get through up to a kilo of bird seed a day if I put it out - believe me, I've tried the lot. I've had free gifts from the sellers of squirrel proof feeders when I've sent them pictures of the creatures inside their feeders, or happily eating from them. At this point it is squirrels 1, me 0 - but I expect I shall go on fighting the good fight! I love feeding the birds, but have as yet found no way to stop the squirrels. There were 5 very fat ones on the grass the other day, I guess my bulbs that I hoped to naturalise won't stand a chance. I do have two tulip boxes under wire and prickly plants that they've not opened yet, but it has not been that cold so I think they're not that hungry yet.