>I spent today building a "Squirrel Spinner". Those Long Tailed Gray RATS are eating me out of House and... Well it's a pain to have to refill these four feeders eevery week. I built the line to keep the feeders away from the bears but then the Gray Rats figured out how to walk the line then hang and clean the feeders out.
The Spinner has concentric pieces of pipe so it turns with very little pressure. If this doesn't work I'm escalating the situation to an armed conflicted.
Note to T.O. The feeders, the wind chims, the cable and the material for the spinner are from the dump.
>I put my bird feeder inside a large parrot cage. Its bars keeps out large birds and fuzzy tailed rats. Also I have a 50 pound Standard Schnauzer that has more than a passing interest in RATS!
My wife has been doing battle with those furry rodents for years. We also have a cat and a pit bull that eat them.We've tried every trick we could think of and the squirrels always end up getting their dinner.I don't think there is such a thing as squirrel proof. I hope your gadjet works. It looks promising but I wouldn't put any bets on it.---Jack
>You are right jack I would bet they doubble team this thing one holds it still why the other climbs over it. I don't give it three days from when it was put up. shall we start a pool?
>Kevin, You're a NH guy. You can't seriously believe that you are gonna beat the bushy tailed rats at their own game? They'll beat it.....2 weeks tops.
>count me in. I'll have to look and see what I have. Let's make it interesting? All the losers have to put the tool up on the benifet page? Let WC win!
>No site of a rat beyond the spinner, but one feeder VERY empty but we have a flock of Gold Finches that look like my youngest son picking thru mixed cooked vegetables for just the corn.
>Here in California we have what we call Digger Pines. Usually an ugly stragly look'n tree but produces huge pine cones. Sometimes nearly as big as a football. I ran over one once and it rolled up on the side of a tire punctured 4 holes in the side. Grey squirrels will climb up to the top of the tree and gnaw them off and you better not be standing under the tree. They chew them off while the cones are still green and weigh about 6 pounds. The cone is much bigger than the squirrel. The squirrel will come down to the ground, find the cone and carry it in it's teeth back up the tree, sit on a branch and flip that huge cone around and around in it's little hands while chewing off the sharp seed pods. The pine nut is down at the inner core of the cone. The squirrel has to strip that cone completely to get at the little pine nuts. It's amazing to watch.
I had a bird feeder at the end of a long steel pole that I extended out from my gazebo. Looks like a huge fishing pole with the feeder hanging down at the far end. I have it hinged at the bottom and raise and lower it with a small winch attached to the side of the gazebo. I was successful keeping the squirrels off by greasing the first ten feet of the steel pipe. It extends out about 24 ft. Don't forget, squirrels can jump a long distance.
Can squirrels swim? I catch mice by stretching a rubber band across a toilet seat. Hang some bait in the middle. The mouse tries to crawl to the bait and falls into the water. You could do a similar thing with a barrel of water.
I would have thought this a joke but I get this email from my red neck cousin in Florida and danged if he and his son aren't holding some squirrels they shot with some sort of high powered sling shots. They also make traditional bows and deer hunt with them. Too Neanderthal for me.
>I kinda like the idea of the video. My pond it right thereI've got a coupl'a trees I can use, who knows maybe I can get rid of some of the 'Walking Seed Vultures and Stonewall Tigers' at the same time.
>Are they hanging out around the spinner? I know I'm close! I knoe they will be mugging that thing in three days. I better go dig thru the tools just in case! What do people need? saws, chisels, planes, stones? Why your at it put a time in the pool we gotta have a winner soon!
>I saw the show on PBS about trying to out smart these little varmints. No since trying IMHO.
Ernie, if there's a pool put me down for Sat 8-17-07. They'll have learned how to repel down a rope from the roof and avoid the spinner all together by then.
