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Keep Squirrels Away from Your Wildlife and Bird Feeders
Want to deter squirrels from your wildlife feeders? Tired of squirrels eating you out of house and home, decimating your birdseed?
The following methods, in order of (arguably) most effective, are the best ways to deter squirrels.
1. Squirrel Eradication
If you're admirer of wildlife in any form, you may want to give this method of keeping squirrels away a pass.
Solve squirrel problems around the home by killing them humanely.
Hire an exterminator, or know your local laws. Use a method that doesn't endanger others (people or animals).
2. Inaccessible Food
Prevent squirrels from accessing food by using squirrel-deterring feeders or by careful feeder placement.
Careful Feeder Placement
If you can, locate the bird feeder eight feet (preferably ten feet) away from squirrel jump-points. These include not only the ground, tree limbs, and deck railings, but also windowsills, doorways, planters, and statues.
Squirrel-Deterring Feeders
Not every "squirrel-proof" feeder deters squirrels.
All are imperfect, but the best, in order, are feeders with weight-senstive mechanisms, feeders with a good baffle, or the right kind of caged feeder.
Weight-Sensitive Mechanism
Feeders with weight sensitive mechanisms (usually hanging feeders) are sometimes motorized, sometimes not. You can adjust most to fine-tune the feeder to the weight of the squirrels you have.
Not all weight-sensitive mechanisms are the same. Wildlife fans reviewed the Brome Squirrel Buster Plus
Homestead Super Stop A Squirrel
Baffle-Protected
Use a feeder with a good baffle placed correctly.
It can be tricky to find the right baffle and place the feeder and baffle where squirrels can't get to the feeder.
Caged Feeder
Use the right kind of caged feeder like the Duncraft Bird Sanctuary (although squirrels may shake the seed out anyways).
Even the best caged feeder may not prevent small or baby squirrels from accessing the feed unless placed far enough away from a jumping point.
3. Distasteful Food
Discourage squirrels providing food they, hopefully, will find distasteful and repellent.
- Squirrel Away
, a concentrate repellent powder made from the spicy part of hot peppers, or other similar products may discourage squirrels and will not harm birds.
- Thistle seed (a.k.a. nyjer seed) seems to be less preferred by squirrels than most other wild birdseed. They will still eat it if extremely hungry, but it won't be gobbled like other birdseed.
Other Tips
While no perfect solution exists to rid your feeders of squirrels, please be aware:
- Do not trap and relocate the squirrel. Translocation is not humane.
- Do not place poison -- or anything a critter might eat that can kill it -- out for squirrels. Other critters will eat and die, and your squirrel may die somewhere you can't get to it.
- Animal scents, sound emitters, and other devices aren't very effective for very long.
See Also
See my other articles on protecting your plants or house from squirrels.
This article, much-updated, appeared in its original form on 11/15/07.
19 comments
Carol
I've got an article coming out next week (May 15th) on keeping squirrels out of your home, but in brief --
Some electrical pest repellers do work very effectively. However, they don't work around corners or through walls, so you'll need to buy enough repellers to cover your attic space (or wherever they're invading).
This might be problematic, as they can be expensive.
The following is a link to a product on Amazon that other people have found effective:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E7OYBK?ie=UTF8&tag=cindyraeblogs-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000E7OYBK
Getting rid of the squirrels around your residence will be very hard to do. Setting out poison to kill squirrels can kill other critters that eat it, and trapping the squirrels and releasing them somewhere else doesn't work. I've read where someone painted the trapped squirrel, released it several miles away, and found the squirrel had returned several days later.
In fact, so many squirrels live in the city and suburbia that, even if you manage to permanently remove a few squirrels, new squirrels would move in almost immediately.
If your dog barks at squirrels, your dog will probably bark at other things over time (foot traffic, crows, cats, activity in the neighborhood).
I would suggest you train your dog to not bark. You can probably find a number of methods to choose from.
It's hard work, but it's actually easier than trying to get rid of the squirrels!
A number of online merchants carry Squirrel-Away: Amazon (check my link in the right sidebar -- it links to an active product now), Ace Hardware Outlet, BirdWatcher Supply, and more.
For a brick-and-mortar company, you might try any of the major hardware store chains (Ace, TrueValue, Aubuchon) or home improvement stores (Lowe's, Menard's, Home Depot, Do It Best).
Squirrels are destructive forces, but your situation is awful.
I would try an odorless liquid taste repellent called Ro-pel. It lasts one to two months if applied according to instructions (you might need to re-apply after a rain).
Even if you do train squirrels to stay away by shooting an air pistol at them, I believe they'll just come back when you're not around. Plus, if you live in a suburban or urban area, laws may prohibit air rifles and pistols -- my city does.
Worse comes to worse, trap the squirrels or hire an exterminator to trap them.
I'll write an article up on this in the next couple of months with other techniques, but taste repellent or trapping really are the two ways to go.
Good luck!
I would NOT recommend your mixture. First, other critters besides rodents may eat your mixture and die. Second, you don't know where the squirrel or other rodent is going to die -- it may be somewhere inaccessible and stink up the place.
In short, remove any squirrels already in your home, seal up all entry points, then try repellents.
For more information, see my article under "Squirrels" called "Keep Squirrels Away from Your House".
If the problem is in the soil around your house's foundation, check out my article "4 Tips: Keep Squirrels Away From My Containers" for ideas on discouraging the squirrels from digging in soil.
Good luck!
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