A tip for squirrels and bird feeders

[puddleglum]

A few years ago a friend of mine told me that birds are all but immune to capsaicin, the chemical in hot peppers that makes them hot. When his parents were having trouble with squirrels in their bird feeder, they mixed cayenne powder into their birdseed and viola, they had no squirrel problems. So when I got my house and set up a bird feeder, I mixed cayenne powder into the seed from the get go. A few squirrels came, took two to three bites, and then went away and didn’t come back. The birds, meanwhile, eat the seed with no issue at all.

This has not been perfect though. One squirrel seems to really dig hot food and will munch away on that spicy bird seed all day long. I definitely need to weed that one out of the population, I don’t want it passing along those heat tolerant genes.

I just got a .22 Air Arms S510 and this weekend, hopefully, am going to be figuring out which pellet it shoots best on low power, I have some 11, 12, and 13 grain pellets, and one of them should work well. With the right low power shot and my Donny FL Sumo, the spice loving squirrel should be toast, and the neighbors will never hear a thing. 

I have a pretty flat yard and the neighbors are not as far away as I would like, so I plan to set up a primary backstop of plywood, and put it in front of my tool shed, as a secondary stop, not that I really will need it, but better to be safe. If I sprinkle some seed in front of the stop, and lots of cayenne powder, when I see a squirrel undeterred by this chemical warfare, it will be time to send it to the big bird feeder in the sky.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@puddleglum Thanks for sharing this method. I have a neighbor with a bird feeder. After reading some AGN posts about squirrels apparently terrorizing bird feeders I asked my neighbor do they raid his feeder and he says he will see a squirrel or two every now and then. I’m going to tell him about your pepper idea. Good luck and let us know if it continues to keep the others away once you dispatch the outlier. 

 

[beerthief]

great idea ,thanks , We have two feeders that get emptied by squirrels in 1.5 days thats about 20 lbs of seed a month . 

I shoot at least one squirrel a day to feed a local fox or turkey vulture , plus racoons

 

[Moog]

I got up this morning and noticed that our bird feeder was totaled again. I found it on the ground in several pieces. The deer come along at night and head butt it to knock the bird food out. This has happened a few times before. The wife and I actually saw them doing it once when we looked out the bedroom window. I think I'll start putting the bird feeder in the garage at night.

We have never had a problem with squirrels.

 

[puddleglum]

@Moog Those deer are jerks! The cayenne powder would likely be unpleasant to deer as well, birds are super tolerant, while mammals get the burning sensation. Might be worth a shot, maybe they would knock it down once or twice and then leave it alone.

 

[Moog]

It sounds like it's an idea worth trying. I still have to fix that bird feeder first LOL.

 

[Ezana4CE]

Thanks to @puddleglum’s post, I looked up the phenomenon and found some interesting information regarding the topic of birds versus mammals and how hot pepper affects them. Here’s a link that explains the what and why. https://eugene.wbu.com/birds-and-hot-pepper

Just thought I’d share. Hope you don’t mind. 

 

[puddleglum]

@moog I missed the bit where you mentioned the bird feeder was in pieces. So those deer are extreme jerks!

@Ezana4CE I'll have to check out that link later. Always like to learn something new and nerdy.

 

[HubenK1Sniper92]

A few years ago a friend of mine told me that birds are all but immune to capsaicin, the chemical in hot peppers that makes them hot. When his parents were having trouble with squirrels in their bird feeder, they mixed cayenne powder into their birdseed and viola, they had no squirrel problems. So when I got my house and set up a bird feeder, I mixed cayenne powder into the seed from the get go. A few squirrels came, took two to three bites, and then went away and didn’t come back. The birds, meanwhile, eat the seed with no issue at all.

This has not been perfect though. One squirrel seems to really dig hot food and will munch away on that spicy bird seed all day long. I definitely need to weed that one out of the population, I don’t want it passing along those heat tolerant genes.

I just got a .22 Air Arms S510 and this weekend, hopefully, am going to be figuring out which pellet it shoots best on low power, I have some 11, 12, and 13 grain pellets, and one of them should work well. With the right low power shot and my Donny FL Sumo, the spice loving squirrel should be toast, and the neighbors will never hear a thing.

I have a pretty flat yard and the neighbors are not as far away as I would like, so I plan to set up a primary backstop of plywood, and put it in front of my tool shed, as a secondary stop, not that I really will need it, but better to be safe. If I sprinkle some seed in front of the stop, and lots of cayenne powder, when I see a squirrel undeterred by this chemical warfare, it will be time to send it to the big bird feeder in the sky.

I like my method better, just shooting the squirrels

 

[puddleglum]

I like my method better, just shooting the squirrels

Do both! And if you get a squirrel like I did, that likes the cayenne pepper, it is pre-seasoned for the stewpot.

 

[HubenK1Sniper92]

Do both! And if you get a squirrel like I did, that likes the cayenne pepper, it is pre-seasoned for the stewpot.

I have home made feeders so I don’t care about hitting them

 

[HubenK1Sniper92]

Mine gets raided by deer too

 

[puddleglum]

Maybe a paintball gun for the deer?