If you have a feeder that is on a pole, measure from the ground to the bird-feeder at the top of the pole. Use 6 inch PVC pipe the same length and slip the bird-feeder pole inside before you pound it into the ground. Make sure that it fits snugly at the top just under the base of the feeder. No lubrication is necessary using this method. The animals cannot grip the large diameter of the pipe.
By Harlean from Hot Springs, AR
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Thank you very much for your solution to squirrel issues! I've had as many as 32 of those little, sunflower stealing critters at once!
Years ago, I delighted in feeding wild birds (only small oily black sunflower seeds, not the millet mixtures they refused to eat). In our heavily wooded urban environment, I mostly attracted chicadees, titmice, finches and flickers.
Keeping squirrels out of the feeder was a full time job so one day my tree surgeon suggested suspending the feeder pendant-style from a long rope he threw across a sturdy branch 15 or 20 feet off the ground. The other end of the rope was attached to a heavy cinder block that sat on the ground. When I needed to clean the feeder and refill it, I would lower it down by moving the cinder block and thus the rope, drawing the feeder closer to the ground.
For years, it was quite amusing to watch squirrels try and fail to reach the feeder. creeping downward, nose first, toward their unattainable goal. It helped to install an acrylic see-thru dome over the seed platform which kept the food dry and added to the endless frustrations of our massive squirrel population.
I'm not entirely heartless: I did supply squirrels with peanuts and cracked corn on the frozen ground in winter. My husband gathered up acorns in the fall and these too were given to squirrels all through the winter. Eventually I had to stop all this backyard activity because I got a terrible case of poison ivy (birds don't mind this weed but their feathers leave traces of the noxious weed oil on feeders, bird baths, etc.). Also, large, lazy mourning doves had arrived and would fall asleep in the feeder, as if it was a hammock, making it impossible for smaller birds to have a snack!
WOW great advise. I was going to buy smaller PVC pipes but not now. I'm going to take your advise get 6 inch PVC thank you.
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