keeping raccoon off bird feeder

[Tom_Trees]

I've a large (opus triple-tube) bird feeder on a 6 foot post. Last week a raccoon figured out how to get past the squirrel guard and started robbing the feeder - nightly. Any suggestions on stopping this, short of lying in wait with the 12-gauge?

Tom

 

[Thomas]

I've seen and heard that stove pipe works,for those little bugger can't dig there toe nails in,plus the stove pipe wobbles a little.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have my bird feeders mounted on 4x4 posts (a pole type baffel is also available-#SB2) and use a stovepipe type baffle-#SB3. Product info. can be found at www.erva.com. I paid about $29 at local bird store.

 

[Redfisher]

I bought some stuff at the hardware store called critter ridder
it's made from hot peppers and you dust it around the post on the ground and it burns the racoons feet or nose( well it works on the neighbours cats anyways)/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[rmorgan]

Tom--

A stovepipe baffle will do a fine job (you can build your own pretty easily--piece of stovepipe and some wire/rod or a drip pan for a stove will work too; it needs to hang loose from teh top so it is wobbly). Hanging the feeder off a tree branch works best, IMHO, and using a Havahart to relocate the coon is pretty good too. If you do the latter drive a good while before you let it out; they can find their way back a lot better than you'd think!!

 

[Carl_NH]

Peppers (jalepeno) ground with with peanut butter coated just about 1' off the ground is a treat they like, but will seldom come back for seconds.

Carl

 

[beenthere]

Those that I catch in the Havahart never find their way back - they stay put when I let them out of the trap. One year I caught 34 and the next year 36. The number dwindled considerably after that, but by the looks of things, its time to get serious again. I don't remember the disease that they carry and it is prevalent in their feces after it is dry. It can get airborne and is potent for years. Not something I want around.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Not to put too fine a point on the issue of stovepipe baffles but the Erva baffles (www.erva.com) have no seams. A hand made baffle using stove pipe will of course. The critters use the seams to get a hold and will be able to climb the seamed baffles. Just a thought.

 

[rmorgan]

Re baffles, I never thought of the seam as an issue, but Jeepguy is probably right. I actually shelled out for the stor-bought for the bluebirds and have had no problems; I've read reports of folks using stove pipe and reporting no problems. Don't know one way or the other. As far as the Havahart goes, I let one out Tuesday morning in a park about two miles from home, and either it or a twin was back last night; it's sitting in the trap now for a release across the river on my way to work. Beenthere--when you say the ones you catch "stay put," do you mean as in "run off," or dead? My dad used to catch coons in a leghold to get them out of his corn patch, and I would sometimes have to finish them off with a shovel. Not much fun. Any more, although I don't have too much of a problem whacking woodchucks (I wouldn't wish them on anyone else), and starlings, I find coons a bit too personable, and thus the Havahart.

 

[GlennT]

We have raccoons under our bird feeders every night. The feeders are mounted on a cedar post and I have two lengths of stovepipe slipped over the post and simply held in place with three nails at the top of each. One length of stovepipe keeps the raccoons at bay, but squirrels take a running start and leap right over the bottom stovepipe. They can't do that with two lengths, one above the other. This has worked now for over four years. The stovepipe has seams, but this doesn't seem to make any difference. I plan to replace the cedar post with a smooth, galvanized pipe. The raccoons won't be able to climb that, but I will have to have a squirrel guard as these critters clamp down on the pipe on opposite sides and up they go. When we had such an arrangement in the past, I tried putting vaseline on the pipe and it would work for awhile. The squirrels would take a running start and get part way up the pipe and then there would be long streaks down the pipe where they had slid down. Before long they wore away the vaseline enough to get traction and that was that. I also tried hanging the feeder on a long horizontal wire between two trees, but that was useless. Squirrels are the world's greatest wire walkers.