A bird feeder can bring many of our feathered friends into your garden, but you can easily also invite in rodents and predators to your green space with this common mistake – but it’s easily remedied
Making this simple tweak to your bird feeder can get rid of the risk of rats.
Adding a bird feeder to your garden means you’ll likely share your green space with many of our feathered friends – but you also risk inviting some less-than-welcome guests if you aren’t careful. Rodents like rats and squirrels, unfortunately, can’t discern that the food you have left out for robins or tits isn’t actually there for them, and will quickly start chowing down on whatever you have left on your bird feeder. Pretty much no one is keen to invite a nest of rats into their outdoor space, so you need to be careful about exactly how you utilise your bird feeder.
Equally, predators like cats and foxes can be attracted to the food you put in your feeder, and they might end up killing the birds you’re desperate to see enjoying your garden. A lot of the time, predators and rodents are attracted to your bird feeder because you are making one very common mistake – but it’s easily rectified, experts explain.
The experts, who spoke to Ideal Home, explained that one major mistake a lot of people make when it comes to the bird feeder happens before you even buy one. Purchasing one that’s the wrong shape can make it easily accessed by rats or squirrels – who are excellent climbers – as well as cats and foxes.
However, there are many feeders out there that are designed to be squirrel or rodent-proof, and these are the ones that you should opt for if you are concerned that the birds aren’t getting as much of the feed as you would prefer. “If food is really hard to find in your area,” explains expert Thomas Hibbert from the Wildlife Trust, “you could offer some seeds or suet in a squirrel-proof feeder”.
The best ones to buy are “weight-activated, caged, and domed” bird feeders, if you are looking to avoid encouraging pests or predators into your garden. However, if you aren’t keen to spend your hard-earned cash on one of these specially designed feeders, then there are a couple of other options, the experts explain.
Most of the time, squirrels and rats will happily chow down on whatever you put out for the birds, but if you sneak in a couple of unwelcome ingredients they will swerve your feeder. This includes things like sunflower or niger seeds, which birds love but squirrels are not particularly keen on. You can also slip in certain items to your feeder that will smell so bad to squirrels and rats that they won’t touch it with a barge pole.
Garlic, pepper, cayenne pepper, and peppermint are all really unappealing to rodents, so sprinkling some amongst the seed will seriously turn them off. “While these smells are unappealing to rodents, birds can’t actually taste them, so sprinkling a little cayenne pepper into your bird feeders, for example, will act as an additional deterrent,” the experts claim.
Do you have a story to tell? Email: [email protected]
