Our Bird Feeder Experiment

 About a couple of months ago, Eduard and I decided to try to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeders. We have been feeding birds for many years at every home we have had. Also in other places where birds find us. But mostly at home. We have tried several different ways to keep the squirrels out of the feeders. In Southern California, the ground squirrels would climb the poles but we had a large bowl anchored upside down in the center of the pole. It kept the squirrels out of the feeders. 

After we moved to Washington state, we now have tree squirrels. Three different kinds. They are very acrobatic and can climb up the pole, swing over to the feeder, hand upside down, twist themselves up and get into the trays and bowls. Ingenious little buggers. And great entertainment. But they really eat a lot of the bird seed.

We were reading an article about how squirrels don't like hot spices like jalapeno peppers or cayenne, but birds don't feel it. So we decided to try an experiment to see if this would deter the squirrels. First I used some of my homemade Chinese style hot pepper oil. This seemed to work on some of the squirrels. But there was one who didn't seem phased by the heat. We called him Mikey, like from an old cereal commercial. Let Mikey try it. He will eat anything. It was a Life Cereal commercial. Mikey tried it and liked it.

The birds didn't care and ate just the same. One squirrel out of our group seemed undeterred by the hot spice. I added Cayenne to bump up the heat. Mikey ate even more. Next thing we knew, Mikey had convinced his other squirrel friends that burning lips were ok. Now we had three squirrels eating the hot oil, cayenne covered seed.

All in all this was a failure as a squirrel deterrent. We had a lot of fun playing with it though. Mikey is like a vacuum cleaner around the seeds. The others still can tolerate just a bit at a time. They dig holes and try to bury their noses in the cold soil. It gets on their paws and fur. 

I have now concluded this experiment. Hot pepper oil, cayenne pepper, jalapeno seeds and all such stuff do not deter a determined squirrel. And I will likely not make up more for them. But as we search for fun ways to entertain the  squirrels, and still feed the birds, I will keep you posted.