I make my own suet and usually put a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in the mixture to ward off squirrels from eating it. Unfortunately I bought red pepper by mistake, can anyone tell me if I use it instead will it make any difference?
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Gathering from many comments I have read over time (I make suet for my birds every winter) it seems that squirrels may even like plain ole red pepper and the birds may never get to taste it.
I do not believe it would be effective in your suet. It takes a very strong pepper to keep squirrels from eating suet and cayenne fits that bill (there are other really hot peppers but cayenne is the one most readily available).
I would suggest you wait until you have cayenne before making your suet. Actually, I have read that cayenne pepper may/will kill the bad parasites that sometimes harm birds - I hope that is true.
You would be better off using no flavoring.
Hello ! Actually what is sold as "Cayenne pepper" is not made with peper it is a mixture of ingredients including piment, most of the time it is piment, flour and salt. Piment is a member of the Capsicum annuum family and is usually produced in Central and South America when peper is from the Piperaceae family (piper=peper), it comes from India, Penjab, Madagascar. Green, white or black peper are different stage of maturation of the same plant's fruits, there is no bright red peper and peper doesn't suffocates or burns as much as some piments do. The other big difference with piment is that peper is very expensive. It means that what you buy as Cayenne peper is red piment just like Paprika is red piment too.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
