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Does cayenne pepper really deter rodents? (1 Viewer)

You're a wacky guy, "Daddyo".

I don't suggest you snif any of that Bhut Jolokia, you might be taking a trip to the hospital.
Birds, you expect, will be unaffected by this stuff?
 
Regarding:

Sigh..
I was hoping cayenne pepper would deter rats/mice from coming to the debris, but I guess not.
Time to seriously think about removing the feeder now.

[and also]

Well, I'm not worried a bit about squirrels or chipmunks. I've made it clear in my posts. I worry about rats and mice. I'm just seeing squirrels as proxy of rats/mice.

I'm going to approach your question from a slightly different angle because, really, its not that you want to keep rodents out of the feeder - you just want to avoid attracting "pest" rodents. Unfortunately, what the seed tastes like has nothing to do with attracting mice/rats. Its the smell. They smell it in storage, they smell it as they run through the yard. If they smell it they'll find it, and if they find enough of it for a long enough period of time they will start making homes near the reliable food source.

A large debris pile will attract any rodent currently living within a small radius of your house. If there are no rats in that radius, there will be none coming to your feeder. If there is little debris, there is little attraction.

Capsaicin treated seed will taste unpleasant to a mammal that tries to eat it. But, treated seed won't keep the rodent from coming to the feeder in the first place. And, you aren't really treating the seed, you're treating the tray it falls into.
Furthermore, food-grade ground pepper is variable in intensity, cannot be applied evenly to the seed, and cannot even really adhere to the seed hull(unless you make some liquid treatment and coat the whole business). Outside in the sun and rain it will loose its potency, be blown or washed away. So, no. I do not think what you are doing with pepper will keep rodents out of your yard.
Here's what will help:

Keep your seed stored in tightly sealed plastic containers.
Do not let stray spilled seed sit on your garage floor.
Do not buy in quantities so large that it sits around a long time.
Clean your debris tray, and under your feeder frequently.
If you are truly paranoid about it - buy the "no-mess" seed mixes that have no hulls, only seed meats. This is practically 100% consumed and leaves no debris behind in the first place.
 
I have used habanero pepper/paste with some good results (I have grown my own habaneros). Just make sure you get the habanero seeds into the paste/sauce to add to the 'hotness'. My problem was more with storing dog food outside, than seeds though. I also put habanero on my food if I don't want my kids to 'try it'....survival of the fittest, you know. Oh, and the dog knows about habanero also. :t:
 
way to deter rodents from birdfeeder area

after lots of frustration over the rodents coming for free lunch at the bird feeder, my daughter researched ordered predator pee. it seems to have worked. we spray the predator pee around the ground where the rodents would come to feed. haven't seen any since. we use bobcat pee.
 
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