intruders

Look what has been sneaking up on the catch tray under the finch feeders during the night. The game camera caught them. Not the greatest pics but it shows what is going on

jack

Forgot to mention that the catch tray is now emptied daily instead of weekly.

jack

Those sneaky little guys! What other animals have you caught Jack?

I have to take my feeders in at night here since our area has experienced a rat population explosion.

Such a shame! I hope you find a way to keep them off!!

Most of my feeders are on poles and I have had to take them in at night due to raccoon raids. They will tear them to pieces to get to the seed and the squirrel baffles are far too small as the 'coons just reach around them and continue climbing. I was out watching the squirrels climb to the hummingbird feeder and jump over to the seed feeders and had an inspiration: GREASE the POLES! Worked like a charm. A few tablespoons of veg. shortening in a paper towel and rubbed on the poles has kept them down on the ground for 3 days now. I still have the deer to contend with, so I won't leave the feeders out at night and I need to "guard" them for the first few hours in the morning. All of the squirrels are still here, they just eat the food in the squirrel tray on the tree now instead of sunflower seeds. I was out of town Saturday night and the raccoons did not get any seed from the feeders that I had left out. They seem to have climbed all over my house and sheds tho - they left me "presents" on the roofs. Pee-eww!

My feeders would be much too high for deer I think, or mostly. I am 5' and I have to sometimes have trouble getting the smaller feeders hooked. I have two poles now to get the feeders high enough and use an arm attachment to hang the feeders from.

I use a squirrel baffle that is round/cone like and you can take it off just by unhooking it. It sticks out well enough that as long as you don't have a feeder hanging close to it, the squirrels can't get around it. I think it is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Stokes-Select-Squirrel-Baffle/dp/B000AF6L4E/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1217938664&sr=8-5.

And I've had no problems with raccoons, though I probably don't have as many as you do.

Mine is more like this but the top is more rounded like a capsule shape.

http://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Torpedo-Squirrel-Baffle-Diameter/dp/B00020BM1E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1217940283&sr=1-1

Lucklily I haven't had any problems with critters.

Mine are like the cone ones, they work very well for squirrels. The coons just have such long arms... The deer bend the poles or break them. The deer usually don't tear the feeders up since the feeders dump their contents out when they fall. My feeders are very close to a bed of deer candy (hosta) and I am doing all that I can think of to dissuade them from coming into the fenced part of the yard.

I use the pole system from WBU, with the Raccoon Baffle. I do have to bring in the suet and feeders that hang in the tree and 2 of the Hummingbird feeders.

Top of the Raccoon Baffle is 5 ft. high. I am 5 ft so to empty and clean the platform or anything hanging on the arms I have to get a chair to stand on to reach it.

On day 4 the squirrels rubbed enough shortening off to be able to climb the pole on the hummer feeder and jump over to the seed feeders. Darn. I've re-greased and am looking forward to my next WBU trip to get the Raccoon baffle. Unfortunatly, living in the middle of the Ozark Mtns. means that it will be a 160 mile round trip. :(

whew...it's only about 80 for me round trip!!

I was showing this to DH and we were wondering if it could be easily made from stove pipe?

Nan...here's a link for a stovepipe baffle. It is what I made for my BB nestboxes http://purplemartin.org/update/PredBaff.html .

Hey Nanny and Nan, there's this wonderful thing called internet shopping!!!! I'm 130 from a WBU so I'm always click click clicking for my shopping needs.

Nan, yes, that can be made from a stove pipe, dryer vent, etc. Sialis shows you how. http://sialis.org/baffle.htm

Lordy I am only way too aware of internet shopping! I did all my christmas last year online!
I go to walmart, Lowes, WBU every 2 weeks on my errands. Amazon.com is my best friend during the winter....

you betcha on the Amazon.com!!!

I used to live in west suburban Chicago where EVERYTHING was at my doorstep. Now it's online all the way.

we are pathetic!! :)

Night night..storm moving in!

OOOH, thanks y'all. I will be making a couple of these soon.