A neighbor told me my feeder setup was drawing rats and I had to rethink everything

So last month, my neighbor Mrs. Chen walked over and pointed out that the pile of spilled seed under my tube feeder was basically a rat buffet. She showed me a few holes in her garden fence where they were getting through. I switched to a tray feeder with a catch pan underneath and started only putting out enough seed for one morning at a time instead of filling it to the brim. The rats cleared out in about a week and I still get my regular finches and chickadees around dawn. Anyone else dealt with feeder rodents and found a trick that works?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_miles19d ago

Switch to hot pepper suet, the birds don't mind it but mammals sure do.

craig.mila19d ago

Respectfully disagree, the squirrels in my yard eat the spicy stuff like candy lol

tara_patel19d ago

Hot pepper suet definitely works" my friend Jen learned the HARD way. She filled her feeder with that spicy suet and the squirrels actually CHEWED through the plastic tube to get at it. She came home to a completely DESTROYED feeder and suet chunks all over her deck. The birds were fine but she had to replace the whole setup. Now she just does a simple tray with a tray guard that catches the seeds and the rats never showed up again.