My brother (& wife) put up bird feeders next to their patio. She is an interior designer so the feeders are the ‘cute’ type - look like little cottages. My brother has been amazed at the lengths he’s had to go to in order to keep the squirrels out of the feeders. Now, they congregate under the feeders for dropped seeds.
His squirrel numbers are increasing ... a neighbor told him about squirrels chewing wires on cars, etc. He is really ‘spooked’ about that & borrowed one of my squirrelinator traps last weekend. So far, he’s caught 2 & relocated them to a park 5 miles away. I told him he’s going to end up with more than the 4 he thinks he has, plus gray squirrels are territorial & as he removes squirrels, more will filter in & replace them.
Using the ‘squirrelinator’, I have trapped as many as 36 in a year under my bird feeders & over 60 in total. Best bait is a cracker smeared with peanut butter & sprinkled with sunflower seeds (black oil). I am sending him the picture you posted - he may laugh.
The birds here haven’t been too interested in Mrs. Augie’s sunflower seed since the cicada hatch started so she stopped putting it out.
The birds didn’t mind but the squirrels are quite PO’d about having to make an honest living for a few days.