Where there's a will, there's... teeth that gnaw through plastic?

A few years ago we started storing some of our bird seed in plastic containers right up on the deck, close to the feeders. We keep a tub of the all-purpose blend and a tub of nyjer just outside the patio door, with both of those tubs within this other nifty plastic thing that is kind of like a stool, but also opens up to double as a storage bin. This year the squirrels started to gnaw bits of plastic out of that bin like something out of the Shawshank Redemption. Except they weren't nearly as neat about it or as sneaky about it as Tim Robbins' character. We knew what they were up to all along. We knew that one day the inevitable would happen...


... and that they would gnaw their way right through to the seed.
As I mentioned in a recent post, the trees are not producing many nuts this year, so the squirrels are relying heavily on a food source they know they can count on: that nice couple who lives in the woods and thinks they are feeding the birds! Can you say "free handout?" If the gray squirrels don't drain the feeders during the day, the flying squirrels will wrap it up at night. We put corn out for them, but more often than not it's passed over for the seed.




Squirrels are silly and funny, but don't let anyone tell you they're dumb. They knew which tub contained the seed they eat (as opposed to the tub of nyjer), and they knew which side of the bin contained that tub.


The detritus of their destruction, scattered among the leaves on the deck.


Until we were able to come up with a less chewable container, we attempted to block their access with a brick. The squirrels laughed and shrugged at this attempt.






While we didn't actually witness it, they did manage to remove the brick one afternoon. By the way, sorry for the poor quality photos. It wasn't very light out yet when I took these, and I was shooting through a (ahem) dirty glass door.


"You in there! What is the meaning of this brick?!"


"I do not appreciate your tomfoolery and attempts to outwit me. That's right, I'm talkin' to YOU!!!!"


"You know I'm agile like a monkey, right?"


"And I have teeth like ginsu knife, so I'll just start enlarging the hole down below your stupid brick!"

We have since purchased a locking 10-gallon galvanized steel can for storing the seed. That should hold 'em off for a while. I hope.