That actually sounds like a really good idea. While I don't have a ton of squirrels I do have other tree climbing pests (possums....grrr). I love having birdhouses on my property. I think there's nothing sweeter than seeing little baby birds stick there heads out of a bird house.

This may be a stupid question...but since I've never really had the squirrel problem...how are they pests to bird houses? Is it just by knocking them out of their birdhouses and eating their food? I initiallly had a terrible picture in my head of a carnivorous squirrel eating a baby bird...lol...funny in hindsight....I know better :)

Tammy

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I do not have any birdhouses up, I'm still researching. But I think squirrels do eat baby birds.

I've seen the Predator Protectors, that's a good idea. But I think I'll try the little enclosures. Now that I've cut 2x4s for the picket fence frame, I'm starting to feel as of I can do some other carpentry, so maybe I will make an outdoor shelf with a bunch of enclosures on it with birdhouses in them. Something on top, I haven't figured out what, so cats would not sit on top of the enclosures, they could not get in but I'm sure they would make the residents nervous.

It is meant to be. I went to Home Depot today (they have this great deal where you can order online and then just go to the store and it will be ready, so I needed mulch). While they were loading my SUV I went to the scrap lumber pile. One of the employees asked what I was looking for and I told him about the birdhouse shelf. He pulled a $45 piece of thick looks like birch veneer plywood and showed me where it was slightly damaged on a couple of feet of edge, and he even cut it in half lengthwise for me, so that is going to be my 16' shelf.
I could set it horizontally and put the grid cubes on it, or mount it vertically and nail them on.
I did not realize plywood could cost so much ( since it was damaged I got it for $15 or so), but obviously this project was meant to be.

Oh yeah, squirrels can be big-time baby bird eaters. They used to clean out nests of doves & cardinals in my old yard. A friend of mine even witnessed the little creeps eating baby bluejay chicks while the parents helplessly shrieked & dive-bombed them. She had a major squirrel-hunt afterwards.

Basically, anything that can get to babies will eat them. Squirrels are well-adapted to do so.

Wow, I'd never heard about squirrels doing that. You learn something new every day here!

Does this mean I can start shooting them with my BB gun? My great grandfather ATE squirrels and POSSUMS.
Southern tradition.
That is gross. But I guess it is the "circle of life".
Susan

I hate to advocate killing anything tho I must admit to LOATHING squirrels because of their bird predation. My dad & brother loved feeding them & we rescued a number of babies the male squirrels threw our of their nests. "Mother" nature is a real "mother" all right--bloody in tooth & claw. I used to pop the mean males & other predators with a non-lethal pop in the butt with a lightly pumped pellet gun.

My friend was an unabashed hunter but she always ate her game- loved squirrel. I'd have to be pretty hungry to eat possum, though, after watching them crawling around inside of cow carcasses :-p

Squirrels will kill adult birds at feeders also. When I lived around them I had squirrel baffles on the poles and all my feeders had grids. My platform feeder had a 1" grid over it also to keep out the starlings and cowbirds that bully the song birds. Keeping the feeders and birdhouses quite far from fences and trees helps also. Squirrels can jump really far. I have a friend who calls them flying rats. I also had a clear dome over one niger feeder.

It's a lot of paraphernalia but I felt like I had to protect them if I was going to lure birds to the feeders. Here we have trouble with hawks that sit on the fence and wait for the quail and small birds to get distracted. There's kind of a downside to feeders and bird baths I guess. Birdhouses are easier to protect.

Sounds like you have a good plan for the houses. So nice that you are looking out for the babies.

We've had a snake slither up a porch railing and eat baby barn swallows nesting up under the eaves too.

One idea we use is to thread birdhouses onto 10 foot metal poles which are sunk into the flower beds to keep them away from squirrels. I don't think a snake could slither up, either.

There are so many trees here I think they're more decoration than useful birdhouses. In Alabama, though, the birds used them to nest in.

In this picture you can see the threading mechanism attaching the birdhouse onto the metal pole -
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Since the premade grids are 14", do y'all think it would be OK to put two houses in one grid cube? With the little houses and the gourds there are going to end up being a number of birdhouses.

Trust me SQUIRRELS EAT BABY BIRDS. I had a beautiful little dove family that came back to nest that successfully had 2 babies in and when in was time they all flew away together. This time whhen they came back we were so excited and watched as they flew back and forth tending it. Next thing we know we see a squirrel running around the support beams to the nest. Of course the adult spooked just before we saw squirrel poke head up with egg in its mouth. My whole family saw it with our own eyes.

I never knew this!!! The grossest thing was when I saw a nature show on t.v. and they showed deer eating baby birds when they found them in the grass! I couldn't believe it....they're herbivores...but I guess a free calorie rich meal is not to be sneezed at.