Subject: capsicums in bird seed
Date: Aug 13 20:26:55 1999
From: Rob Saecker - rsaecker at thurston.com


At 2:23 PM -0700 8/13/99, Jim Brewster wrote:
>Hello Tweeters:
>
>Was at Fred Meyer's today buying some bird seed and they had a product on
>the shelf that was ground red hot peppers, with capsicums listed as the
>prime ingredient, and was being marketed to mix with bird seed to drive off
>squirrels.
>
>I have lots of squirrels around my place and my question is, does anyone
>have information about what effect capsicums might have on birds? If this
>product would be abrasive to the smell and taste of squirrels, what does it
>do to birds? Has anyone on the list used it? If so, has it been
>successful?
>
>This product was priced at $3+ for a small package and I've seen red hot
>pepper cheaper in the bulk in either herb shops or health food stores.
>
Jim,

tried it, with mixed success. The chipmunks were discouraged and eventually
stopped coming to the feeder. The squirrels were initially put off, but at
least one learned to tolerate it, and just ate no matter how much I put on.
As to buying bulk, as long as you're buying pure ground chilis, and not
chili powder (which contains other ingredients), I can't see any reason to
pay the premium for the special packaging. I couldn't see any difference in
results between them.

Regarding the effect on birds: wild chili seeds are bird dispersed. Chilis
may have evolved capsicum as a mammal deterant; chili seeds are digested in
the mammalian gut.


Rob Saecker
Olympia