As you found out,..they don't work.

Texas_Annie: When I lived in Southern California, half of my time gardening was spent dealing with gophers. People in the East have no idea what these little buggers can do! Once, a neighbor and I were growing giant pumpkins for a contest, and as they grew larger and larger, we would try and lift them off the ground a bit, to guess their weight. Ours were each about 150 pounds, or so, until one day when he lifted his pumpkin, it came right up off the ground. Gophers had tunneled in from beneath it, and eaten all its insides out--nothing but a shell remained. This, after 3 months of special care given the pumpkin. I'm sure he would have liked to wring the little critter's neck. They do make traps for gophers that are pretty effective. You open their run (when you see soil piled up) and put the trap in the run, then put a board over it. Lifting the board and checking it periodically should yield a squashed little plant-eater. If you continue doing this for the rest of your life, you'll probably keep the gophers under control.

How interesting .................... I don't know if I have flying squirrels or not, but this could very well be the culprit as "it" did not eat all the suet in one night, and there was no mess..................did not try to pull the plastic container out of the holder. I do have a tree very near the feeder. Thank you for this information.

I was a forced early bird during the raising kids and working years. Like others, I would stay up late after the kids were in bed for the quiet time to myself. The last job I had for ten years and I started at 7:30. I really disliked getting up so early. I am not a happy camper in the morning and don't want noise or chit chat. Some coworkers arrived at 7 and would be laughing and carrying on when the rest of us arrived. I of course said good morning to everyone but then I would think to myself "can you all just be quiet for an hour?" I am definitely a night owl now that I'm retired, although I have to admit I'd like to get up a bit earlier than I usually do. I like to lounge in the morning for awhile before getting dressed and heading out. I make all appointments in the afternoon. DH is, and always has been, an early bird and is chipper and chatty the minute his feet hit the floor. We've had numerous "discussions" about me being the opposite and not wanting chit chat first thing and needing quiet for a bit. I have to keep reminding him, but many mornings he is out playing tennis or pickle ball when I get up so I have the quiet and am ready to be social when he gets back. My brother retired several years ago and still sets his alarm for 7 am. The first thing I did when I retired was unplug the alarm clock! We were talking about it and he said he didn't want to "waste half the day by sleeping in." When I told him I like staying up til 1 or two he said there was nothing he would want to be doing at 2am, to which I replied there's nothing I would want to be doing at 7am...ha!