When squirrels try to cross the spinners, they are tipped over and fall away from the feeder. Spinners may be a line of empty thread spools, short lengths of pipe or hose, or empty plastic bottles strung along the wire that will spin and keep squirrels from accessing the feeder. Spinners: Hang a feeder from a thin horizontal wire strung with spinners to keep squirrels from climbing across the wire.This also ensures that ground-feeding birds do not eat old, contaminated, or rotting seed that could be unhealthy. Cleanliness: Keep the area around the feeder clean and remove debris and spilled seed from the ground that could be attracting squirrels. Many squirrel baffles are designed to twirl or tilt if a squirrel climbs onto them, keeping the animal off balance and unable to access the feeder. The baffles should be at least 15-18 inches wide or long to prevent squirrels from reaching around them. Baffles: Add smooth plastic or metal baffles above and below bird feeders.A larger cage can be placed around a feeding station with several feeders inside the barrier. Some feeders come equipped with cages, or you can easily add mesh such as chicken wire around an existing feeder. This is also useful for preventing larger bully birds, such as starlings, grackles, and pigeons, from accessing the feeder. Squirrels will not fit through small wire openings but that will not restrict smaller birds from feeding. Cages: Place a wire cage around a bird feeder.Ideally, mount or hang feeders on a smooth metal pole at least six feet high, and prune back any branches or bushes within a 12-foot radius. Location: Squirrels can jump distances of 10 feet or greater, so place feeders well away from trees, wires, porches, gutters, roofs, and other launching points to make it harder for squirrels to get on the feeder.The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.Some have found that setting up a separate area to feed squirrels away from your home and feeders helps to keep them at bay. I speak from experience!Ī light dusting of cayenne pepper on the ground around the feeder may also help keep them completely away from the area. Trust me, you do NOT want to cayenne in your eyes. I would not recommend using your hands or shaking, the particles could become airborne or you could accidentally rub it into your eyes. You can see here we mixed in a little less than ¼ of a cup of cayenne pepper for 2 pounds of bird seed. It is also an option to use pepper flakes, though its easier for the squirrels to simply eat around them and therefore less effective. We have found that roughly 1/8 of a cup per pound of seed works pretty well for us. This will allow you to find out what the right amount is to ward off both old and new squirrels from your feeders. The best approach is to start off slowly adding in only a little pepper at a time, especially if you have a regular group of birds that come to your feeder. In contrast, the squirrels will get the pepper on their paws, faces and in their mouth and be turned off and leave. It may sound harsh but from everything we have read, the birds do not notice it and it passes right through their systems. Finally having enough of trying to chase the squirrels away, we decided to try something we’ve heard about a few times now from friends mixing cayenne pepper into the seed. They told us that this exactly how to keep squirrels out of your bird feeders! If you have a bird feeder set up, it can be quite disheartening to look out the window and see the squirrels just shoveling all of the bird seed out on to the ground. This is a particularly challenging time of year for birds and their sometimes delicate feeders, as they compete with squirrels for every last seed.
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