My mom officially declared war on SQUIRRELS!

[Skoad]

Ok well my mom loves to feed the birds. Every year the squirrels chew up the feeders, eat all the seed, leaving none for the birds. We have a metal trashcan full of seed, they kept knocking the lid off and getting into it, so we bungee corded it shut....guess what! They chewed the bungee cord in half!

So my mom bought some expensive "Squirrel proof" feeder. On each side when something heavier than a bird sits on either side it springs closed. Well within about 2 weeks I was watching a squirrel get on it. He hung with 2 paws off the bar, and pushed up with one of his hind legs on the pole that the actual bird feeder was sitting on. With him pushing up with that back leg it countered his body weight and he got all the seed he could eat. Aparently he taught the rest of the squirrels.

Thats the last straw!

Here's the plan:

I am going to hook up some sort of shocker to the bird feeder, and run wires from the feeder along the ground and up inside one of the windows of our house. When Mr. Squirrel gets on he gets zapped!

Does anyone have an idea of what I should use? This is not for killing the squirrels just keeping them off.

We have shot them sooo many times with BBguns and thrown countess fireworks at them, but as soon as we turn our backs they get back on.

[Skoad]

Here's a sketchy plan:

wire
battery
capacitor
switch/button


Just basically going to hook the battery up to the capacitor to store a charge and use the switch or button to complete the circuit to release the shock. I think it will work.

I don't know what kind of capacitor to use to be non-lethal. I have read I can do it with a disposible camera but I think that might be too powerful for a squirrel.

[fire1811]

.22 cal should take care of your problem

[PissedGodzilla]

There is this bird feeder, that when any pressure is put on the bar for the birds, it starts spinning... I love watchig my stupid squirrels jump on it, start spinning around like mad, holding on for dear life... falling off and flying into a tree... never gets old...


here


http://www.yankeeflipper.com/droll/index.cfm

:headbang:

[sneakyhacker420]

lmfao i love the yankee flipper commercials man!


btw, this is how my mom's uncle died a while ago... he tried hooking up a 120v AC current running to the bird feeder... but guess who got about it when he went to fill it with seed :tard:


or start shooting at them with some of the J-Cor/AGD pepperballs at the little rascals - but my mom refuses to let me shoot at them still :argh: (she hates squirrels also)


btw, as far as the metal trash can goes, go get thoes all-rubber ones from an auto shop or wherever, i'd like to see a squirrel eat thru a nice 7/8" rubber strap

[lord1234]

your mom is a CRAZY SQUIRREL LADY....

[penguinpunk555]

We HAD a problem with bunnies. Untill my dad bought a high powered pellet gun some hunting pellets and told me to have fun.

[Skoad]

non-lethal stuff here.

And what I'm hoping to rig up will not be very dangerous considering it will have to be manually hooked up to battery then manually throw a switch. It will not be keeping its charge forever, only powered when one gets on.

[BD_Paintball]

id go with the spining bird feeder, that thing works real good, and its funny watching the squirrels spin around.

[TraXeR]

LOL, cat+spinning fan video anyone?

[tony3]

That video was horrible, yet extremely funny.

[GNARKILL]

we had the same prob with spuirrels eating through the little wire fence around our garden :cuss: so what i did was...... ;) hooked up a car battery to the wire fence and the next 3 squirrels who tried to bite through the fence got fried :rofl: . i laughed for hours. needless to say, they didnt get into the garden again

[skife]

take apart a bug zapper and use parts from that.

or

pratice your accuracy with some core.

i've shot the neibortgh's cat countless times for using the bird feeder as a buffett (it wasn't eating seed :p )

i shot the thing out of my window with a bb gun, it jumped up and looked around then ran home, good times.

[mcveighr]

Shotgun with a light trigger aimed at bird feeder, put a pulley in the tree above the feeder then one out on a branch behind the 12 gauge, tie a string to the spring activated locking pedistal through the pulleys and tied to the trigger, when the squirrel jumps on it, it goes down pulling the string and trigger.

[CaptaiN_JacK]

I am going to hook up some sort of shocker to the bird feeder, and run wires from the feeder along the ground and up inside one of the windows of our house. When Mr. Squirrel gets on he gets zapped!


I was helping chop down some trees at a neighbors house about 4 years ago and this was exactly what he did! The only thing about it I really remember is that he split the wires from an electrical plug and hooked them to the wire mesh and ran that into his house. Maybe not though, because it was a long time ago and I didn't really study it. Maybe to make it safer put a resister on it so that it's safer to you and the squirrels. Maybe study plans for a bug zapper (I'm sure there's some plans online for a homemade bug zapper) and give it some more juice.

[WickeDKlowN]

We have the same problem, but I just shoot em with an old .22 then lay them out in the pasture for hawks or snakes or w/e the hell eats them. They're usually gone within a few hours. Same goes for armadillos(they tear up the yard) but they usually get ate up by the buzzards and eagles.

[PyRo]

We have just been trapping them and taking them on 10 mile trips to someone elses house :)

[Bad_Dog]

well well well

you've discovered my other hobby besides paintball and hunting :)

Technically between my neighbors and I, I am considered to be "Urban Management" and I controll the rabbit, gopher, chipmunk, squirrel, and any other varmit in the area surrounding my house... and while I do like the .17HMR approach, sometimes there indeed is a need for a less than lethal approach to the situation.

I ususlly use live traps and relocate the animal (more than 15 miles) but sometimes that doesnt work since populations of some critters are so high; it can bee like a waiting line... when you remove one animal, the next takes its place. So the second method is deturrance, find somethng that squirrels hate, and use it to your advantage. I had a problem at a relatives house with squirrels eating feeders and then gorging on the bird seed and we solved it by mixing hot pepper dust with the bird seed (it can be found at most pet/bird stores).

as for an electrical device your most likly not going to be able to do something with that isea unless it kills the animal. The fact that squirrels are furry animals makes it very difficult to make them complete an electrical circut without a great amount of voltage; thus limiting that method to lethal or supertough squirrels only...

heh, look... I even express my feelings towards squirrels in my sig :p

[Skoad]

I think it won't have much of a problem with completing the circuit. I plan to either run a wire or some mesh material on the bar where they hang, so their paws will be touching it. I am worried about frying the little buggers, I guess I'll have to start with a low amount of power and move slowly up.


I remember now that a friend back in school rigged up a disposible camera to his doorknob and shocked people. Capacitor stores a charge for the flash bulb and zap! I might try that if i can find a disposible camera.




Alternate idea is not to shock them, but to hook up a speaker or something that makes noise, when they jump on....blast em with a horn!

[magman007]

the disposable camera thing tho, doesnt provide that big of a shock, it really isnt any thing that will piss off a squirel. HOnestly, fry em and be like, oops sorry ma, it didnt work like i wanted to, then chuckle to your self, or do the hot peper dust thing. The motorizd feeder is a cool idea, but onl yif ya wanna spend the dough... or quit feeding birds, and let em find their own stuff :)

[dj89]

HAVE A HART TRAP you can get them at your tractor store. ;) or a .22 will do it

[Trina]

There is this bird feeder, that when any pressure is put on the bar for the birds, it starts spinning... I love watchig my stupid squirrels jump on it, start spinning around like mad, holding on for dear life... falling off and flying into a tree... never gets old...


here


http://www.yankeeflipper.com/droll/index.cfm

:headbang:

BWAHAHHAHAAHA!!! OMG that was awesome! :rofl:

[behemoth]

heheh, disposible camera internals are fun, my buddy's dad is an electrician, so he gets us larger capacitators, THEY HURT, he says its a little less than a stun gun, just enough that you WONT get knocked out...

So we run around school with em :)

[Skoad]

Yea i know they will DEFINATELY knock a squirrel off the feeder, but I'm worried they are gonna be smoking afterwards.