How to Keep Animals Out of Your Bird Feeders
Critter-Repellent.com Staff • January 9, 2021
Watch the birds, keep the animals away from your feeders
Bird feeders are for the birds. Right? It’s best to keep it that way. While squirrels and chipmunks are the primary invaders of the feeders, seeds are a primary piece of the diet for nearly every herb and omnivore indigenous to North America. How do you keep those critters away from bird feeders on your property? Let’s take a look:
Try a baffler
– Bafflers are conical pieces of plastic or metal that are designed to fit over the top of bird feeders, making an approach by rodents from the top nearly impossible. These devices are also fairly universal, meaning that they should fit over most standard bird feeders, whether hung from free-standing poles, porch supports, or rafters. While sometimes bafflers are effective they’re likely best left to be a piece of the strategies that you develop for pest control.
Take care to secure the feeders
– While this may feel like an obvious step in the installation process, pests most often gain access to feeders which have fallen to the ground. This is especially the case when large animals like deer have access to feeders that aren’t secured tightly. In cases where feeders are installed to trees or supports, heavy installation can be easy, but free-standing bird feeders tend to be easy to knock over. Consider installing dedicated foundation points for bird feeder supports, assuring that you cannot knock over poles as you install them.
Clean it up! – Aside from keeping feeders well secured, keeping the area clean is also vital to keeping pests away from the feed intended for birds. While birds can be picky eaters, they are also messy eaters, and leaving spilled shells and seeds under the feeders introduces opportunity to unwanted critters to help themselves. This is easiest to do when the bird feeder is over man-made structures but strategically placing feeders above less grassy areas of your lawn can make keeping the feeders’ areas clean.
Present threats to the area of the feeder – When bird feeders are placed in close proximity to trees or other critter-friendly environments, pests, especially rodents, feel safe and welcome to the feeders. Chances are good that feeders moved to open spaces where pests are increasingly susceptible to predators will be targeted less by uninvited critters. Alternatively, allowing your pets to run free in the areas around bird feeders makes those areas significantly less attractive to unwanted pests.
Keep pests out from feeders altogether – When pests seem to counter every move you make, just repel them directly. Utilizing Shake-Aways money-back-guaranteed formula, pests are sure to be driven out without pushing the desired birds away from the feeders you put out for them. Shake-Away uses the scent of undesired animals’ natural predators in order to push animals away from the areas where the it is placed.
For more information on how Critter-Repellent Packs can help protect your bird feeders from unwanted guests, check out our animal solutions, or contact us in order to develop the perfect solution for your property.
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