Keep Animals From Eating Your Bird Seed With This Must-Have Product

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If you're a bird-watching enthusiast, you know that bird feeders are the best way to invite beautiful songbirds to your yard. One of the ways to ensure the birds that serve as little helpers in the garden come to visit is to make sure they have prime pickings from the bird feeder. But every birder's worst nightmare is catching squirrels, raccoons, and other wily creatures stealing your expensive bird seed and creating a mess in your yard. Thankfully, the ideal solution is the baffle, a handy tool that works to "baffle" squirrels and other critters who attempt to access your bird feeders. 

After you've picked out the optimal bird feed to attract the most birds, like blends that include black oil sunflower and white proso millet seeds, the last thing you want is for it to be snatched by opportunistic animals. But that's where a baffle comes in handy. Most baffles are essentially metal or plastic shields that go over the top of bird feeders to prevent small animals from climbing onto the feeder. They might be bowl-shaped or umbrella-shaped and are placed on the pole where the feeder is located. The goal is to keep the food out of reach of squirrels, with the baffle making it so they can't climb any further up the pole. You can even use this product in tandem with the kitchen secret to humanely banishing squirrels from your garden: cinnamon.

If you don't purchase a bird feeder that already has a baffle attachment, consider buying this must-have product as an accessory. There are a variety of them on the market to choose from, made with different materials and some designed with extra features for improved deterrence. Try this simple Wide Squirrel Baffle for $11.99 on Amazon, which can be attached to your current bird feeding station. There are other options with unique designs, like this Metal Squirrel Baffle for Bird Feeder Pole for $32.99 that uses a long, torpedo shape to create a smooth, slippery surface for squirrels and other climbing creatures to get around.

There's a lot of things to consider before putting up multiple bird feeders in your yard, including how to handle unwanted visitors. But you don't need to spend a lot to purchase baffles for all of your bird feeders. Consider putting together a DIY baffle with a PVC pipe or even an old plastic bottle. By repurposing a large soft drink bottle, Ladybug Adventures on YouTube creates a frustrating device that prevents squirrels from climbing without harming them either. To make a baffle like theirs, take a clean plastic bottle, cut off the end, slice strips lengthwise on the bottle, then put it right onto the pole. The strips make it difficult for little animals to find a spot to climb up. The goal is achieved by totally baffling the critters that want to eat your bird seed.