Vera, I know, isn't it hilarious?!! I wish I had thought to have the camera up and ready when I told him he had to leave. He managed to flip around in there and come up head first. He peered over the edge at me before he skedaddled. It would have made a priceless picture. Lisa

We have been using baffles with excellent luck. We only see squirrels on the ground, never on the feeders. We use the tubular baffles on a shepard's hook. There are four feeders hung from one hook and multiple other shepard's hooks placed around the yard with the same baffles, and no squirrels draining the feed. Much less expensive than a single feeder. Martha

Hi Jannd, I've got one of those WBU pole rigs they sell in the middle of the picture. They also fit on the hodge-podge pole which is on the right. That is a pole thingie that was left behind the previous owner, which I combined with a piece of copper pipe to make it longer. The WBU stove-pipe style baffles hang loosely on a piece of hardware that you attach to the pole. It has screws you can adjust to differing size poles. It's important that the baffle hang loosely and wobble a bit, because that helps prevent critters from gripping the baffle and scaling it. You can make a home-made baffle using a piece of stove-pipe and some hardware pretty cheaply. In my setup, the dome is not being used as baffle, but as a cover for the tray feeder. It protects the Black oil sunflower seed somewhat from weather, also from the birds that like to poop when they are sitting on the pole rig -don't want the poop falling into the seed. I don't think the domes work as well as a baffle, but not sure? The friend who gave that to me was using it as a baffle and he said the squirrels got around it somehow.

One thing I've tried but sadly, it only works for a short time is this: Spray the pole and every place the squirrels may touch with oily cooking spray. Then sprinkle it HEAVILY with red pepper. They really hate red pepper. The rain will wash it all away and red pepper is NOT cheap in the bigger containers, but it works. I mostly use it when I'm at my wit's end just to get the satisfaction of watching them try to get to the seed but can't. If someone could come up with a good reliable and affordable solution to this, they could make a lot of money! We've tried all the squirrel baffles, supposedly squirrel proof feeders, etc. but they always find a way around it.