The small charge only startles squirrels it is far from being strong enough to hurt them.Ī woman in Virginia built a huge chicken-wire house, tall enough to stand in so that she could feed the birds and grow tomatoes inside without losing everything to the squirrels. Birds do not get a shock because they cannot make a contact with only two legs. A safer alternative is The WildBills bird feeder, which has a built-in, battery-operated charger that lightly zaps squirrels when they make contact. Though some people have wired their feeders with electricity to keep squirrels away, that can be extremely dangerous. He then drilled holes in the tops for attaching the feeders with wire.Īnother option is the WildBills bird feeder. The Pennsylvania handyman decorated his posts with white-and-black paints to make them look like white birch. Using the pipe as a post on which a bird feeder is mounted prevents the creatures from getting any traction. The squirrels simply slip off the plastic baffle without getting to the feeder.Ī handyman in Donora, Pennsylvania, discovered that the same pipe used for plumbing can be an effective deterrent for squirrels, which can´t climb it. Harrison also found that a clear plastic dome baffle placed directly above a hanging tube feeder works well, as long as the feeder is high enough off the ground. The six tube feeders hanging between the bottles were never touched by squirrels, which would have rolled off the bottles had they tried. George drilled holes in the bottoms of the bottles and strung them lengthwise on a 30-foot wire that ran through the holes and the open ends of the bottles, eight feet above his patio. Plastic soda bottles strung on heavy galvanized steel wire worked for author and birder George Harrision when he conducted a bird-seed experiment at his home in Hubertus, Wisconsin. "Then hanging them lengthwise, I secured the bottles a few inches below the feeder with duct tape." He used the same setup on a hanging feeder, sliding the bottles down the wire to position them above the feeder. "I made holes in the bottom of a few two-liter juice bottles, large enough to get around the post of my bird feeders," he says. Using plastic bottles, a Williamsburg, Virginia, resident devised a simple and cheap way to keep squirrels off his bird feeders. Typically, he says, "the squirrels will try to jump onto the pole, grab the Slinky and promptly find themselves dumped to the ground." He attached one end of the Slinky to the top of the pole and allowed the rest to hang so that the pole runs up through the center of the Slinky. "The squirrels go up the post and into the duct, but no farther," he says.įor about four dollars, a Quincy, Illinois, homeowner has enjoyed 99 percent squirrel-proof feeders – using a Slinky. Louis, Missouri, found that a length of aluminum duct mounted under the feeder foils the squirrels. George Harrison, an experienced birder and the author of several books-including Squirrel Wars and Other Battles with Backyard Wildlife (Willow Creek Press, 2000)-interviewed people around the country who shared the following tips for keeping squirrels out of bird feeders.Ī man in St. Tired of squirrels raiding your bird feeders? Here are some ways to thwart the furry bandits.
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