You say that, but in actuality, no so much... I have a buddy who was having problems with squirrels at his feeder, so he decided to try a little experiment, try to build the ultimate squirrel-proof feeder. He mounted the feeder on a metal pole away from a tree, greased the pole, and hooked it up to a mild electrical current, so anything that touched the pole would get a little zap. He cleared all branches that went anywhere near the thing. The squirrels still got to it. He has no idea how, but he was walking by the window and sure enough, one of the furry little bastards was perched up there chowing down. Squirrels are goddamn ninjas.
This might work, actually, good idea. Birds are immune to capsaicin, but mammals are not, so it should do the trick.
We used to have this “Squirrel Lady” at my old building. She’d go out to the nearby park and leave peanuts for the squirrels. The odd part was how she’d do it, though. She didn’t just go out and toss a bunch of peanuts around. Oh no. She’d spend the better part of the afternoon (and she’d do this almost every day) wandering around individually placing each peanut. One on top of a fence, one inside a little knot in a tree, one on top of the water fountain, etc. Just wandering around painstakingly stashing each one. It was very strange.
This worked for me. I regularly leave peanuts and my stale bread out on the back porch and the squirrels totally forgot about the bird feeder.
