It’s a war of wits against squirrels

A gray squirrel doesn’t mind stretching out to eat seed from this backyard feeder.
A gray squirrel doesn’t mind stretching out to eat seed from this backyard feeder.

— Of all the varmints that interfere with human attempts to feed birds, squirrels are easily the most difficult to control. The common gray squirrel and the fox squirrel can learn to foil even the cleverest attempts to stop them.

Use of cone-shaped predator guards and hanging feeders on thin wire stretched between trees may slow the bushy tailed rascals. There are also specialty feeders designed to thwart their efforts.

Trapping and relocation may work as a temporary measure, but is not considered a good deterrent. The late Clayton Crow, who lived in west Little Rock in the late ’90s, waged a war against squirrels. He trapped more than 100 squirrels at his home in one year and released them in Burns Park on the other side of the Arkansas River. Although their numbers declined at his home slightly, he finally concluded that trapping and removal was an ineffective measure.

Birding specialty stores market bird feeders that use electricity to shock squirrels and send them scampering. They may be effective if used according to directions.

One specific product is Squirrel-Off, a solar-powered bird feeder. It gives a snap of static electricity to a squirrel. The static shock is similar to what sometimes happens when you walk across a carpet in cold weather. Feathers, beaks and scale-covered feet insulate birds from the shock, which sends squirrels scampering.

Other feeders use other methods, including a perch that spins (Droll Yankees’ Yankee Flipper) and the Brome Squirrel Buster Plus, which uses the squirrel’s weight to activate a door that closes the feeding port. Squirrels can still find a way to thwart these clever feeders. In the case of the Yankee Flipper, some determined squirrels have learned to hang on to the feeding perch and spin until the battery runs down, leaving the seed unprotected. If the Squirrel Buster Plus is placed too close to a pole or branch, determined squirrels will pull the feeder toward themselves without putting any weight on the perch so that the ports never close.

Another option is to choose seeds that are less attractive to squirrels including spicy seed mixes, or give in and provide the squirrels with their own feeder and stock it with dried corn or other delicacies.

HomeStyle, Pages 36 on 12/29/2012

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