Bribing squirrels - good or bad?

16 years ago

I squirrel proof my feeders, but the squirrel still make constant attempts. I decided to see if I can distract the by giving the their own little feed area far away from the bird feeder. Does it work? Sort of?

Attempts to the main feeder have reduced greatly. In the past, there would be a constant stream of squirrels making an attempt at the feeder. Now, there are only a few. Most of them seemed to be the smaller, younger squirrels.

In the mean time, I notice that I get more squirrels concentrated in the squirrel feeding area. Part of the distraction is that they start battling it out with one another over the food. They don't really fight, but often I see doing their equivalent of beating their chest and then one or two will body-slam the other and chase them around. In the mean time, blue jay will slip in and fly off with a nut or two. It's actually pretty amusing. After all of the food is gone, the squirrels seems to disperse.

To avoid them associating me with the food, the food is always at the far end of my yard and I always fill it at 5:00 AM. At that time, only Juncos seems to be about. I also make it a point of chasing them around the yard, giving them the impression that I am a crazed person. I also sometimes skip days.

The question is am I making things worse in the long run.

Paul

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

chris8796
16 years ago
Its all trial and error and everyones conditions are different. What works for one will fail miserably for others. In general, that strategy works well for many.

If you can't beat them join them. If I had many squirrels, I would make them earn their keep with the squirrel bungee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrel bungee
paulsiu
Original Author
16 years ago
I have one of the bungee things, but they do not bribe the squirrels. If the corn is easily within reach, they'll go for it. If it's a big higher, they'll spend all their time bashing their head against the bird feeder. In addition, once one squirrel get to the corn feeder,the other squirrel immediately migrate to the bird feeder. In addition, I find that they do not like the fake corn. I got a bit tire of reloading it each day (it's gone by noon).

I was thinking about creating some sort of obstacle course that will make it somewhat difficult to get to the food, but not impossible. Here's what I am edging toward:

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrel circus
Related Discussions
Ants in vegetable garden: good or bad?
Q
Comments (16)
Wrigley, I've never seen ants chew through and take down plants at the base, are you sure it isn't perhaps cut worms? I've never had any problems from my ants in the garden (hey, they are Canadian Ants, maybe they are really polite eh?:) But yes, if you do have real problems with them, a mix of baking soda/sugar/water in any containers will help lessen the population. They take it back to the queen, or they ingest it and ... I think they explode but I really don't want to know:( Have to admit to never needing to try this but I've heard of too many people raving about this to doubt it's effectiveness. The "recipe" below lists yeast too, I guess there are a number of combo's but likely they all work just as well. You don't need holes in the lids, if ants can crawl up vertical kitchen cabinets to the counter tops, they can manage a jam jar lid or even a bowl set in the ground a little so it doesn't get tipped over by you, just fine. If the bowl is level with the ground, this will also trap slugs and earwigs, so double duty (they drowned). Beer used to be used for slug/earwigs but what a waste of good beer:) Here is a link that might be useful: baking soda and sugar water
...See More
Good news:US wildlife pop up,Bad News: they're now our neighbors
Q
Comments (9)
oh come on now! She must've been smokin something. I've seen lots of deer lately on the side of the road and they ignore my car and keep eating except for the babies. We have coyotes and recently spotted Black bear. There are a few deer that cross over each evening from one side of the road to the other every night. They killed one baby oak a couple years ago, but there is so much other land around they moved on, thank goodness. In the summer the dogs would announce their arrival by the neighbors pond before the deer crossed the road as it started to get dark.
...See More
Hey, it's August already. What looks good/bad in your garden?
Q
Comments (46)
Awesome new pics and updates everyone! I'm glad lots of folks got some good, soaking rains too. Last Thursday afternoon I was caught in the heaviest downpour I've ever seen here in over 12 years. Amazing! Tons of rain water in my rain barrel right now, and it only collects from about 20% of the roof surface! Mary, you should definitely get some rain lilies, they're just so easy and they absolutely do not need to be on life support (automatic irrigation)! Just plant them, water them once every ten days or so when they seem active, and forget them. They're great, and so easy! Congrats on your pumpkin bloom, Xica, so nice! Keep us posted! Thanks for the nice comments on my little blog, it's a fun little outlet for me. Oh, you can plant those desert bluebells (Phacelia campanularia) any time, but when I am introducing them into a garden for the first time I wait until November to sprinkle them around the garden. They'll pop up in late winter and bloom in spring. Once you let some go to seed, you'll never need to plant them again, LOL. Awesome pics and plants as always, dlg421! I love your garden! Great that it got a nice rain too. I noticed a few mushrooms popping up in my garden too, LOL. Fun! Okay, it's September now, so I'll see everyone in the September thread! Thanks for sharing your gardens with everyone, it's wonderful to see/hear what's going on in your gardens! Take care and happy gardening, Grant Here is a link that might be useful: Happy September 2012 what looks good/bad in your garden?
...See More
Good news, and bad
Q
Comments (5)
We have always had squirrels, and of course birds, but this year we have an increasing population of chip monks. The yard is fenced, so no dear. I suppose larger varmints like groundhogs are possible, but not likely. My vote is the for squirrels who are forever digging holes in my garden to hide and retrieve their loot. What ever they are they ate the buds off one plant last night, so no blooms on that plant this year after all. They also feasted on a couple of bee pods earlier this year.
...See More
birdguy
16 years ago
Squirrels mount a feeder from 3 different directions: From above, from below and from the side so you have to take that into consideration. I was OK for awhile but, now, there is a squirrel that leaps from a limb 12 above and a little to the right of the feeder. lol
Good luck.
rachel_frome_ky
16 years ago
My feeders hang from hooks up under the eaves so vermin can't reach them, but squirrels like to sneak under the side deck and grab spilled seed.
My little Jack Russell Terrier loves his job of running them off
jannd
16 years ago
I tried distracting the squirrels by feeding them on their own and all it's done is attract more squirrels now that they've found a good food source. While they've got food, they're fine, but as soon as it's gone, they're back trying to bring down the feeders. It has done nothing for me except result in higher food costs with more mouths to feed!
garyfla_gw
16 years ago
Paul
I keep an outdoor aviary so you can imagine what a squirrel problem I have lol. feeding the separately resulted in more squirrels AND a few rats . I am a crazed person (ask my neighbors ) but that resulted in really fast squirrels .Dog resuted in even faster squirrels .Gee they can run up a tree backwards .lol I now just allow the squirrels to clean up spilled seed which I'm hoping results in starving rats??
Jannd your results remind me of what happened when I got married .lol Okay the extra mouths grew up but now have more offspring. Even more mouths lol. They even figured out how to open the fridge. So far the squirrels have not learned that trick .
I feel that short of a low level nuclear blast we'll learn to live with squirrels?? lol gary
lazypup
16 years ago
Perhaps the degree of success depends upon the number of squirrels and the size of the bribe.

We have 5 butternut trees, 3 huge black walnut trees and 2 hickory nut trees in our yard. In the fall when all the nuts fell we raked them up and dumped them in a huge pile on the back of the lot, a pile probably equivalent to 2 or 3 55gal drums of nuts. Needless to say, if I want to see a squirrel or Chipmonk that is where i look, but I have not seen even one attempt to get to my bird feeders.

Bribing squirrels - good or bad?

Comments (7)

chris8796

paulsiu
Original Author

Related Discussions

birdguy

rachel_frome_ky

jannd

garyfla_gw

lazypup

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Bribing squirrels - good or bad?

Comments (7)

chris8796

paulsiuOriginal Author

Related Discussions

birdguy

rachel_frome_ky

jannd

garyfla_gw

lazypup

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

paulsiu
Original Author