DIY Squirrel Baffle

Well, I thought I was pretty clever yesterday. I needed to do something about the *%$#@! squirrels that live in my neighborhood; they’re eating me out of house and home. But squirrel guards are just too darn expensive; heck…a little ol’ piece of metal curled around a pole? Sheeshhhhhhhhh ...highway robbery.

So…I made my own! Yup.

I bought a flat length of that duct-pipe stuff; thin metal that rolls into a cylindrical shape and sort of locks together along the seam. Before I rolled it, I carefully (read that VERY carefully; this stuff is so sharp one could loose a finger and not know it for five minutes!) cut about 3” cuts every couple inches along one edge (not the edge that locks).

Once I finished that…and figured out I had to make a few wedge-shaped removals, too (to make the bunch squished around the pole less bulky)…I used some thin pliers to bend each section twice…so that I effectively made one opening a lot smaller and had a place with which to attach my coupling. You know; those metal collars with the screw that is used to tighten it down smaller? I took the whole thing outside, slipped it over a birdfeeder pole and tightened it down. Worked like a charm and cost me about $5.00

Okay…it wasn’t that easy. I figured out right away I needed to wear heavy leather gloves or risk a serious injury. It’s hard to wear such gloves while doing intricate work. The first cuts I made were not deep enough and I didn’t have enough metal to fold the end closed and still have enough to wrap the collar around. So I had to start over and cut deeper and re-fold. Now it works.

I also made judicious use of good ol’ duct-tape and made sure there were no sharp spots accessible to little birdie-toes. I wrapped one length around the top of the thin pipe where my cuts stopped, just to steady-up the whole thing…and then wrapped several more pieces around the exposed cuts that might cause problems.

But hey…the duct tape matches the duct pipe; so the end result is not too hokey or garish. Now, I’m just waiting to see if I’ve outfoxed the blankety-blank squirrels! Heh, heh, heh. To tell ya the truth, I’m rather proud of my invention. I’ve heard stove-pipes work too…but they were too expensive for my budget.

Okay, I have no draw programs here…I did this in Word; but it gives a fair representation, if my text leaves you scratching your head. Not an elegant piece of artwork, but then, neither is the baffle! LOL Of course, the bottom doesn't taper like that...it's the same diameter at the bottom that it is at the top, before it's bent to attach to the pole. (Common'...I used Word!) Oh, and it's about 3" in diameter and perhaps 2' long...and attaches about five feet up the pole.