I’ve had enough. We live in a house next to woods and the bird life is spectacular. Feeding the birds makes me so happy. We have nesting birds in our boxes and don’t want to stop feeding them.
But the bastarding, destructive, relentless furry squirrel arseholes are driving me crackers.
I have a bird table - I’ve stopped using that as they first just cleaned it out so we added chicken wire big enough for the birds but not them. It stopped the blackbirds which made me sad, then they ate through the wire anyway. So we took the wire off and added wooden batons - they’ve chewed through those and it looks appalling.
So I got a pole feeder with hooks. I added feeders with mealworms and sunflowers and seed - the birds are all over it and it’s joyous. But those bastard squirrels worked it out within a day.
So I spread WD40 up the pole. That worked for 24 hours and although HIGHLY entertaining it was t good as it’s a)not very practical to do daily and b) they’ve found a workaround anyway - they just leap up, or from a tree, or our archway, or the shed roof, and I haven’t got anywhere to put it that isn’t equidistant from one of those things enough to stop it. They can jump an enormous range.
They’ve chewed through the feeding posts on two feeders - including guardman ‘heavy duty’ £20 ones. They’ve chewed the lid off a caged feeder. They’ve chewed up all my gladioli bulbs. There are holes in all the planters with delicate small plants in.
I’ve chased them with the hose (some days what feels like hundreds of times). Sometimes all 6 come at once and frankly they don’t give two shits about the hose any more I can get within a couple of feet of them. I swear they are sticking their furry middle finger up at me.
What works? I’ve seen baffles but they are huge money for what is basically a plastic bowl. Cheapest I’ve seen is about £15 which feels a lot. Or are there genuinely squirrel proof feeders which they can’t infiltrate? I don’t want to pay loads but I’m happy to have a couple of decent ones and cut down the choices.