This really works!!! And it doesn't cost $14.95 for those domed-shaped "squirrel guards", either. In fact, it's "FREE"... and takes only a few minutes to do.
Simply take an empty plastic 2 liter soft drink bottle, rinse it out, put a hole in the bottom of the container & leave the cap off the bottle, then mount the bottle upside down just above the feeder on the wire that holds your bird-feeder to the tree limb.
I used an electric soldering gun's heated "point" to put a small hole in the bottom of the bottle. Make the hole slightly larger than the diameter of the wire on which you're going to mount it. The advantage of using a soldering gun rather than a nail is that the melted plastic in the bottom of the bottle cools and re-hardens again into a "raised collar" surrounding the hole which should stand up a lot better to the weather & wind than a simple hole punched into the bottom of the bottle with a nail or screw.
When the squirrels try to go around the suspended bottle, it will "turn" on the wire and throw the squirrels off. It drives the squirrels CRAZY and you'll have a lot of fun watching the smarter squirrels sitting on the ground after being thrown off the bottles... looking up at the bottle and feeder with their bushy tails "switching" back & forth in anger and frustration as they try to figure out how to defeat this latest human "trick".
It's about TIME they are getting "frustrated" after all the years they FRUSTRATED me with everything I tried to use to keep them from destroying my bird-feeders (they even chewed HOLES in the bottoms of the feeders to get at the seeds) and eating up all the expensive niger seed and sunflower seeds while, at the same time, running off all the birds.
My net friend sez she used oil-based paints to paint colorful flowers on the empty bottles that she uses to protect her bird-feeders from the marauding squirrels... and it's "fun" to sit and watch the squirrels attempt to defeat the bottles. But, of course, they can't... 'cause the bottle just keep "spinning" around if the squirrel attempts to crawl over it to get to the feeder.
I didn't paint my bottles... I left them clear and prefer them that way. They're barely visible if left unpainted. Regardless... I've had the bottles up for about 3 weeks now... and even the most persistent squirrels have stopped attempting to get around the "bottle guards" I've put up on the wires holding my bird-feeders.
Butttttttttttt... I started feeling kinda "sorry" for the squirrels that I've been "battling" for the past 20 or 25 years in an attempt to keep them from destroying my bird feeders and from eating up all the black oiled sunflower seeds I put out for the birds... sooooooooooo... hahahaha... now I spread a coffee can full of the sunflower seeds around on the ground near the feeders every morning where the squirrels can get at them since the squirrels no longer can get at the seeds in my bird-feeders.
I guess that when you have a "choice"... it's kind fun to watch the durned ol' squirrels chasing each other around in the trees and across the ground while the "boss squirrel" tries to monopolize all the seeds for himself. He's even chewed the tail off of one of his competitors... and has "bared" the most of the hairs off the tails of a couple of others. He's a real "meanie"...
But now, I expect that my feeding costs are going to go down considerably since I've had as many as 8 squirrels (including one VERY smart, all-white albino squirrel with pink eyes that figured out how to defeat all the other "squirrel guards" I unsuccessfully attempted to use) feeding off my bird-feeders at one time EVERY morning and during the day, too.
Let me know after you've tried this... and tell me how it worked for you. Maybe your squirrels are smarter than mine, eh?
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.
