Squirrels

When a grey squirrel first arrived in the garden it was a moment of great joy and entertainment, but they soon became a nuisance - eating everything in their sight, including a plastic bird feeder!

The seed feeders made from polycarbonate and galvanised steel have so far proven to be squirrel resistant to their gnawing, but these do not stop them eating the food.

To stop them eating the food, you can fit baffles to bird table poles and cages around the feeders. An alternative to fitting the baffles is to grease the pole, but this is not always successful and also poses a risk to the birds' feathers.

More sophisticated feeders are available that sense something heavier than a bird is hanging on the feeder and either collapse the perches or spin around, throwing the squirrel off.

There are also chilli pepper based powders that you can add to the bird food. The squirrels, being mammals, find the chilli pepper too "hot" and leave the food, but birds do not mind it because their tongues are insensitive to the pepper.

Finally, you may prefer to provide the squirrels with their own feeders, filling them with peanuts, hazelnuts or acorns.