Climbing the Greasy Pole

Such is life. Well mine anyways

All I got was what looked like an ad for YouTube. spam?

No it worked on mine after the adds.

Ah you have more patience than me didn't give it that long!

Worked fine for me, just click on "skip ad" after a few seconds.
That squirrel has patience, sure he will get there eventually.

It looks a very good idea. I will try it. What I need is something to stop them digging up my plants.

Shotgun - simples

Aww the poor thing.

Am I the only one who felt sorry for the squirrel!!!

Amusing to watch and great in theory but I wonder if they checked if Vaseline can have harmful effects on the squirrel ?

I felt sorry for it too and hated the smug commentary! OK I know they are vermin with tails but nevertheless. . . .

I just thought the squirrel was doing what squirrels are supposed to do. They are not human. They know about survival and not sharing food with the birds.
It's a cruel thing to do to squirrels. No, you're not the only one who felt sorry for the squirrel, sunseeker.

I really do not think it is in anyway cruel. This action is to prevent squirrels from eating the birds food. I put netting over my plant pots to stop the squirrels digging up my bulbs it is not harmful to them.

The squirrels are able to easily get a more varied diet than a lot of birds who seem to have a more limited range of things they can eat. Squirrels prefer the easier task of helping themselves to the "fast food" we leave out for the birds.

www.ypte.org.uk/factsheets/hibernation

"Squirrels' diets consist primarily of a wide variety of plants, including nuts, seeds, conifer cones, fruits, fungi, and green vegetation. However, some squirrels also consume meat, especially when faced with hunger. Squirrels have been known to eat insects, eggs, small birds, young snakes, and smaller rodents."

I put out seeds, fat balls, suet squares, peanuts and mealworms. Any creature that chooses to visit my garden is welcome.

Exactly, vampire. Birds and squirrels cannot differentiate. Neither should we. Squirrels are wildlife just as much as birds.

A local family of squirrels have taken up residence in my next door neighbours shed this year they seem very tame and do not run when his cat comes out to investigate in fact the cat seems more worried about the squirrels.

I don't really think it's cruel. The squirrel will eventually give up and go somewhere else. I did quite admire its persistence.

I have been using Vaseline on my bird feeder for years and the local squirrel population appears still to be in very good health. They must be getting their nutrition somewhere else. Don't be sentimental about grey squirrels - or are some of you also sentimental about rats?

I finally looked at this thread and was just slightly disappointed that it wasn't about lap dancing.

I'm sure rats must visit my feeders. After all you're never more than 6 feet away from one. I know mice visit because some of the braver/stupider ones do during the day. All animals are welcome provided the follow the golden rule. ^You're welcome in my garden but come in my house and you're dead

Durhamjen you commented that "Squirrels are wildlife just as much as birds."
But we should not always say that any particular species of wild life should be allowed to continue to grow in numbers without ensuring that they are not damaging the populations of other species in the area.

When an animal toward the top of a particular food chain has no particular predators or just by force of numbers it can overwhelm the natural habitat and the food supply of other creatures in way that can cause serious damage to the population of other species.

There is a real problem when the wild life balance between species get out of control in terms of the balance of the predatory food chain
In a stable ecology there should be a health balance between all the predatory species.
There was an out of control hedgehog population (first introduced by farmers) in some islands in the Hebrides which was causing major problems with the ground nesting wader bird populations. These were culled or removed causing great controversy.

The problem was no there were no predators to control the hedgehog populations which were growing out of control and causing serious problems by eating the eggs of the ground nesting birds.

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22093131

There are other introduced non native species which have damaged our native wild life in particular the introduction of grey squirrels has caused major damage to the numbers of our native red squirrels. Other species cause similar damage.

Grey Squirrels are culled in areas of the UK where they are trying to maintain populations of our native Red squirrels.
rsst.org.uk/our-work/northern-england/

(The red squirrel conservation trust.)

The UK has become much better in recent years at looking at issues like this to protect and manage our native wildlife. Homo Sapiens, having done a lot of damage over the centuries.