I’ve had trouble with squirrels at my bird feeders ever since I bought the house and started putting the feeders out. I’ve had to relocate them multiple times to try and find a location where the squirrels couldn’t jump from the trees to the feeders, all to no avail. So I started buying “squirrel proof” feeders. The only one I found to be effective is the Yankee Flipper from Droll Yankees. But I like putting suet feeders out for the woodpeckers too, and the squirrels would get at those. So I started using hot pepper suet. The pepper has no effect on the birds but the squirrels take one bite and run off.

It was getting tiresome. So I decided to bribe them. I put out a corn cob squirrel feeder and once they figured it out the squirrels were all over it. And that seems to have worked. I’ve seen no more attempts at the bird feeders.

So just now I was watching a squirrel going away at one of the corn cobs and thinking to myself it’s getting fat and happy. But no. An instant later the little dickens starts burying the kernels in the ground nearby, like they were acorns or something. I guess its a reflex with them when there’s a surplus.

So maybe next year I get corn growing in the front yard.