A Genius Bird Feeder DIY That Can Help Keep Squirrels Away

You could spend an afternoon watching human battle squirrel, ostensibly for the benefit of hungry tufted titmice. People buy and build devices that variously block, shut out, drop, fling, and occasionally threaten to impale these little acrobats. YouTuber and mad scientist Chris Notap solved the problem simply and beautifully by simply constructing the walls of his bird feeder with rings sized to admit birds but not squirrels. That's basically the way many caged suet feeders do it, but with more style ... and quite a bit more effort and expense.

His most recent version of the squirrel-proof bird feeder uses a galvanized steel chain-link fence post and silicone adhesive to create a grid of rings that's attractive, effective, and interesting to watch. The determination of the hapless squirrels, caught on camera, to get in shows off the effectiveness of the contraption — if it were possible for the squirrels to get inside the feeder where the sunflower seeds are, they most certainly would have.

But if we're honest, the real issue with squirrels on bird feeders isn't about the cost of the bird seed or the hunger of the birds themselves. It's about the twitchy impudence of squirrels everywhere, which seems to trigger many creatures, from dogs and cats to bird-watchers. We don't want to be outsmarted by high-wire rodents, but most of us are. Not, however, Chris Notap. While there's no shortage of "squirrel-proof" bird feeder designs, the challenge of refining the tools of battle will always attract some geniuses.

The squirrel wars could be about money. The cost of this DIY feeder — around $40-50 if you are creative with materials and have all the tools — isn't necessarily prohibitive, since $50 worth of sunflower seeds is a mere weekend bender for a suburban street gang of calorie-destroying squirrels. Besides, when we tried Amazon's highest-rated squirrel-proof bird feeder for under $50, it didn't even work particularly well, but reviewers loved it anyway. We don't mind spending money to defeat squirrels. Still, Chris Notap's first generation design used copper pipe, which was a few bucks too rich for him.

The $18.33 post he settled on doesn't appear to be available any longer, but this post from Home Depot (retailing for about $30) should substitute nicely. Disregarding the width of the saw kerf, you'll need about 7.3 feet of rings, so the 8-foot post is perfect. Add to that a tube of all-purpose 100% silicone sealant to stick everything together (about $9 at Home Depot) and some scrap materials, and it's a reasonable price for the project, and probably the cheapest way. Despite our firm conviction that pool noodles and PVC can solve most problems, PVC pipes don't come in the right dimensions to permit most birds while keeping most squirrels out. After building the floor and roof, securing everything with a few nuts and bolts, and miraculously finding a post in your yard to mount it to, you could spend under $50.

Since the cost seems to be about as low as you're going to get it, that leaves one last issue with Chris Notap's design: It's a pretty tedious build. If you've spent much time with a manual tube or pipe cutter, you won't relish the 140 cuts (two 5x5 ring walls and two 9x5 ring walls) necessary for his design. You could speed things up with a tail pipe cutter (about $45 at Home Depot), which bites into the post with several cutting wheels at once and makes the process considerably faster.

There are even easier ways, like using a metal-cutting blade on a miter saw or using an angle grinder. The latter is unlikely to give you an even cut and produces sparks. Sparks hot and voluminous enough to set your T-shirt on fire twice in one day. (Ask us how we know.) In both cases, cutting round objects can be problematic, especially with the sorts of blades used to cut metal. The result is sometimes broken bits of cutting or grinding wheel radiating out from a 10,000+ RPM shaft faster than the speed of a Life Flight helicopter. And cutting galvanized steel — especially 140 times — releases toxic fumes from vaporized zinc oxide that cause something called metal fume fever, and that's probably the end of the conversation about high-temperature operations on galvanized steel. Try the tail pipe cutter. Or, you know, install a DIY squirrel feeder to distract the pests.