Fix one thing... WAR DECLARED

soundmotor

soundmotor

super modified
Got the idea to block squirrel access to our birdfeeder and went to IKEA to get a cheap placemat then screwed it to the fascia board. It works great, Humans 9 / Squirrels 0! They've been dropping like rocks all morning. I could actually watch that all day.

Unfortunately Great Leap Forward now keeps the birds away. They get up close then "Nope!" and fly away. Need to remake the barrier, longer but with shorter overhang should do the same thing. Back to IKEA...

oDsfp0i.jpg
 
teal'c said:
Birds need time to get used to it. Eventually one of the braver ones will go for it, the rest will follow.
Birds are flighty.
Click to expand...

Yep, female cardinal was the first one back and many more since. However, after observing squirrel banzai attacks for awhile* it can be less than half the width.

Going to cut it down and put the pieces side by side. The plastic just needs to block them from leaning out over, grabbing the cable or dropping onto the top.

*Humans ~20 / Squirrels 0

Very happy with the result and am going to look for a less visible solution long term.
 
Could it be the seeds? The birds I have do not like the black sunflower seeds and prefer the economy seed mix from Walmart.
A highpowered pellet rifle took care of my squirrel problems. To me squirrels near the house is just asking for something to get ruined.
 
motorstereo said:
Could it be the seeds? The birds I have do not like the black sunflower seeds and prefer the economy seed mix from Walmart.
A highpowered pellet rifle took care of my squirrel problems. To me squirrels near the house is just asking for something to get ruined.
Click to expand...

Cardinals are all over the sunflower seeds, the squirrels are after the peanuts.
 
mgkfifty said:
I could not agree more! It's called wildlife management. Don't get me started on red squirrels, now there are some trouble makers!
Click to expand...

We have one red squirrel somewhere in the mix. He regularly chases the gray ones away,they are twice his size.

We used to have a 50/50 hybrid gray/red but seen him in awhile. Pretty sure one of the backyard hawks or a fox got him.
 
sKiZo said:
Google "squirrel catapult" ...

Click to expand...

Thinking along those lines yesterday. The racquet bug zappers are cheap. I was going to get one and put one lead on the metal cable and the other on a metal rim around the top of the feeder. Each contact would be far enough apart that the birds would be unlikely to touch both at the same time. For the squirrel though it would be unavoidable.

electric_fly_swatter_zapper_racket.jpg
 
Humans 21 / Squirrels 0

They may be catching on. Yesterday I counted 6 on the ground. I suspect it is taking them 3-4 tries to figure out they can't get to it.

They are still here on the ground but none have tried to go down the Whoopie Slide in awhile.
 
My wife feeds the birds out on this dirt patch area. She uses a small amount of seed, and some bread, and scatters it. The birds immediately flock in.
This also attracts the ground squirrels, which are hugely destructive, and a disease vector. This also provides me a wonderful shooting gallery opportunity, and an effective way to control them; the squirrels. The birds are hardly phased by the sound of the air rifle anymore. But the squirrels, a different matter.
 
mfrench said:
My wife feeds the birds out on this dirt patch area. She uses a small amount of seed, and some bread, and scatters it. The birds immediately flock in.
This also attracts the ground squirrels, which are hugely destructive, and a disease vector. This also provides me a wonderful shooting gallery opportunity, and an effective way to control them; the squirrels. The birds are hardly phased by the sound of the air rifle anymore. But the squirrels, a different matter.
Click to expand...
Same here.

But, I've had to deal with squirrels, rats, and mice.

I even got a bird feeder to get the seed up off the ground, but discovered (via an I/R motion sensor camera), that the rats can climb the skinny metal rod supporting the feeder.

Traps have taken care of the rats for now.
 
Other than the squirrels, the only other daytime rodents I've seen below the feeder was a red vole. My wife spotted it first, looked like a hamster -

1171.jpg


/pic from web not me
 
The title of this thread reminds me of what happened to my roommate/fellow trucker this past week. He's an owner/operator and his dump truck kept springing leaks in the cooling system. I would help him fix one leak and another would start.
 
I still own a car that was like that for many years. I finally chased the broken whatever to an intermittent rear window motor and I have left it alone. I'm sure if I fix that some totally unrelated thing will quit. Basically my solution has been to leave something broken that I can live without.
 
I liked the other squirrel-apult video from before christmas....that sucker was effective. about a 60ft launch. I can think of many uses for the ability to fling angry squirrels upon people places and things
 
I had a chipmunk that use to hang around my garage ,I fed him peanuts and he would spend hours retrieving them and hiding them.He was a hand feeder also, one day me and my buddy were bored so we got a fishing rod and tied a peanut onto the line.Jigging for chipmunks is hilarious.He wouldn't let go .I miss the little bugger.
 
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