This is one of our bad boys or girls. We have about a half dozen that come calling and only one has half of it’s tail. “Stumpy” didn’t show today but this little bugger is getting fat on our sunflower seeds:
We love the little buggers and get a kick out of feeding them too.
I’ve got grays all over the place, we live in a small wooded area on a lake.
Some suggestions- If you want to feed the birds, put ground up red pepper in your sunflower seeds. the squirrels hate it and will eventually learn to leave the sunflower alone and return to THEIR corn feeders. Birds don’t have problems with it! My neighbors and I have had to put hardware cloth screen on the outside of our soffitts to keep them out of our attics. Everyone in our cul de sac has problems with them burrowing into the soffitts and getting into the attics. Keep your squirrels feeders away from your house.
Randall Sale
the Kytroutbum
Eric that is a nice feeder in your pictures, I was looking at one like it yesterday at walmart, it was sold as “Squirrel Proof” 
I only have three squirrels that come to my bird feeder. I had a real problem with them dumping the food all over the ground to get to the sunflower seeds.
Then I realized that If I bought better food there would be more sunflower seeds to eat and less food on the ground.
I bought a bag of sunflower seeds, mixed it with the birdseed I already had. now the squirrels don’t have to dig to get to the sunflower seeds, the small amount they spill is ate by the ground feeders (doves etc.) and I have very little waste. and its as fun watching the squirrels as it is the birds.
Next year I will mix from the start and not worry about the squirrels.
Eric
The feeder was a Christmas present from Mrs. Claus. I was thinking about using the dremel tool to buzz the rivet heads off that hold the tray to the bottom. First though I will put some field corn in the tree for the squirrels and grease the shepherds hook that holds the feeder with some PAM cooking spray. I may also use the cayenne pepper.
Need to put feeders out for the little buggers first though.
My mom always had a milk jug bird feeder hung up on the tree in our back yard (i.e. a plastic milk jug with a hole cut in it on one of the sides) while I was growing up. What we found was that, when a squirrel was in the bird feeder did not throw food on the ground (and the food on the ground had already been eaten by the birds), the birds would get mad and attack the squirrel in the bird feeder. If the squirrel threw food on the ground, the birds would swarm around the food being thrown onto the ground and leave the squirrel alone. Quite entertaining.
However, I must say, that I take the contrarian view and, actually, do not like squirrels. They got into the chimney flue, at my parent’s home, and clogged it up so that our furnace did not work (we had an old furnace, until about Senior year in college when my parents finally got a high efficiency one that could not be vented through the unlined, brick chimney) and caused other damage to things on (and, yes, even in the attic) the house. Whenever I think of squirrels, I can only see them as tree rats. I have no use for squirrels and I don’t apologize for my views, nor do I care if it offends, that’s just my view and others are more than welcome to disagree.
Paul
I have a Kuma. Nothing that small with 4 legs last for very long in my yard.
I will be the first one to admit that I do love to hunt and eat the wild ones but not the ones in town that everyone feeds. Been living in squirrel country almost all of my life. They do get into homes occasionally but I always look at is as a risk we accept to live where we do. Our home is squirrel resistant. It is not that hard to do. Treat them just like a rat in that any hole they can get their nose through they will get their body through too.
Screen the holes that must stay open, seal the other ones off and put a “Varmint” cap on the chimney. Take a look at these:
http://www.fireplacemall.com/Chimney_Caps/chimney_caps.html
Now any squirrel that does manage to get into the home must be removed and that usually means killing them. They can do too much damage and the health risk is not worth it.
I used to live in westfield mass and they officially are infested with BLACK squirrels. they are much smaller than gray squirrels, but much more prolific and apparently more aggressive since they took over so quick. Supposedly they were imported from scotland for someones garden or a park or something and then spread… whoulda thunk they could do that???
I am with Gandalf, however, on the distaste for the tree rats. They eat the birdfood, leave a huge mess when done, and do a lot of damage. And my good for nothing old dog (god rest his happy soul) wouldnt kill them. He would catch them, run around for about 20 minutes with them in his mouth, then set them down to take a drink or pant and away they would run. Useless dang dog… But I miss him. Looked like a fox, only bigger.
we had to quit feeding the birds when the damage we thought was squirrel-caused turned out to be rats. the cat spent more time outside, we burned the wood in that woodpile, and we stopped feeding the birds–gave the feeder to a neighbor across the street. rats are gone, birds went across the street, and all is hunky-dory!
“Whenever I think of squirrels, I can only see them as tree rats. I have no use for squirrels and I don’t apologize for my views, nor do I care if it offends, that’s just my view and others are more than welcome to disagree.”
Paul
I agree with you, they are pretty much Fluffy Tailed Rats with good PR. However, they haven’t caused millions of deaths by carrying the plague all over the Europe (Yet). Probably due to the fact that they prefer to live in forest area away from people. I personally like them and will do what I can to keep them on the outside of my home and still feed them.
I understand your feelings, I feel about domestic pigeons the way you do about squirrels, to me they are flying rats, if you substitute Pigeons for Squirrels in your above quote you would have my feelings.
Eric
I really did post this thread here with the good intentions of cheering up some folks. In the light of what they recently went through namely J.C. and L.F. Please read the title of the post. I have nothing against those that do not like squirrels but please, if you have a rant against them start another thread. The title of the post is "For J.C., L.F. and all of us that love the little squirrels".
True, and my apologies. I have a friend who’s wife is from hawaii and is MADLY in love with squirrels. I definitely can understand why people think they are cute and want to feed them. I always thought it was kind of funny that my dog would, in essence, rescue the squirrels and chipmunks from my fathers murderous hands 
My dad used to get SO angry that the dog would catch-and-release
P.S. That dog terrorized any newcomers and could seem vicious before you realized that he was all bark and no bite (most of the time) thus making it even funnier when he would let the little critters wander off
Had the pleasure at lunch today, of watching our little squirrel haul a full size, fully loaded, ear of dried corn, over two 6’ fences, and ever so carefully, pull each kernel off the cob … and plant it in our lawn! Our big dog just sat in the doorway, drooling, and shaking the entire time the squirrel was in the yard.
Always amazes me how much of a load that they can carry. I am not certain how much it is but it has to be a large percentage of their body weight.
cant say im too fond of the little critters. if they would stop stealing our apples and tomatoes, i might not have such a hateful vendetta agianst them. but until they turn from their theiving ways, they will continue to donate to my fly tying materials…
VEE put out a couple ears of dried corn one year and the little grey guys loved them almost as much as the peanuts and sunflower seeds. As Betty said, they plant those kernals all over the place. Come spring we had corn growing all over the yard, in hanging planters, all through the raised bed gardens, our neighbors also had a generous sprouting of corn in various places. After that, no more corn.
REE
Erick, I feel that way about Pigeons too. So it’s pigeons and squirrels I don’t like oh yeah and now lady bugs, but that’s a long story.
Nighthawk, didn’t mean to have my post taken as a rant. I only meant to share my childhood observations and to explain that I do not share the like of squirrels and presented my position as to why I do not share the like for squirrels that others have. I suppose it could be seen as stepping into a rant when I stated that I think of squirrels as tree-rats, that was not my intention.
Take care,
Paul
I agree with you, they are pretty much Fluffy Tailed Rats with good PR. However, they haven’t caused millions of deaths by carrying the plague all over the Europe (Yet). Probably due to the fact that they prefer to live in forest area away from people. I personally like them and will do what I can to keep them on the outside of my home and still feed them.
Eric
The tree variety may not cause plague, but the ground variety out here sure does. We get outbreaks of plague in the Ground Squirrell populations out here that close down whole areas of the landscape to human interaction. That’s OK…their tails tie good flies too, just not as fluffy as the tree rat tails.
MAO
I Love them along with Mom,Apple Pie and Chevy Pick-ups!!!
Fishin’ Jimmy
PS- I bet my Friends the Beavers love them too!!!
I also feed birds and had a terrible time with the squirrels getting into the feeder and emptying it of food with most of it going to the ground. I had the problem until I hit on a simple solution. All I had to do was put my feeders on a shepherds crook hanger out in the yard far enough away from the trees, fence & house so the little buggers couldn’t jump up on it from one of those platforms. I then put a metal squirrel guard on the pole of the shepherds crook high enough so they couldn’t jump on it either. To make sure it stayed up there I put a screw type hose clamp under the squirrel guard. Problem solved.
But I didn’t want the little beggars to starve so I put a corn feeder up in tree away from the bird feeder. The feeder has a screw on it that goes into the corn cob so they can’t just run off with the whole cob.
It’s interesting to watch one squirrel up on the feeder eating the germ out of one kernel after another and dropping what’s left and then another squirrel eats the leavings. And then there are the squirrels that apparently don’t like corn and would rather eat the sunflower seeds that the birds spill.