Caroline and others,

Am I the only one with squirrels that chew up plastic?? Mine have
demolished nearly everything I've tried with the exception of one rather
expensive very heavy plastic "squirrel guard" from, I believe, Duncraft.
Every time I try to improvise, it doesn't work. I have 8-10 eastern grey
squirrels and 1-2 Douglas squirrels. It's almost too much of a challenge
some times!

Diann MacRae
Bothell
tvulture at halcyon.com

At 09:11 AM 11/23/98 -0800, you wrote:
>We've managed to keep the starlings off our feeder by using no peanut butter
>or seed and by placing a large, clear plastic, flower pot saucer on top. We
>poked a hole in the center of the saucer and strung the wire for the feeder
>through it. The saucer comes down over the feeder like a cloche hat. It
>bobs back and forth in the wind, but doesn't stop the smaller birds
>including the Downy. By the way, the reason that we stopped using peanut
>butter in the suet mix was that a local squirrel went absolutely butt-wacky
>and tried everything to get at the suet feeder, including chewing off the
>cedar shingles on the corner of the house, next to the feeder. He did a
>fair amount of damage before we figured out what his problem was.
>
>Caroline Feiss
>Seattle
>
>