Squirrels eat the bird food meant for the birds and are extremely hard to stop

It doesn't matter your age, put up a bird feeder and you'll soon hate squirrels. You spend $40 on a bag of seed and they'll scoop out all the stuff that they don't want to get to the stuff they do want. Seed on the ground attracts animals you don't want like rodents or Canadian geese that shit all over. I found it easier to pay the squirrels off like the mafia. Buy a bag of corn or cheap peanuts and sprinkle some around to appease the bastards. It sucks but it's worth it in the long run.

Not a boomer, don't care for squirrels. They're attic-hiding, wire-eating bastards. What the fuzzy-tailed rats don't eat out if the bird feeder, they knock on the ground. I planted 12 cannabis seeds. Each time one sprouted it would disappear the next day with a tiny asshole paw-shaped scoop left in the dirt.

Since people already answered the question, here's some unrequested tip:

If you want mammals to avoid bird feed, mix some of the hottest chili powder and/or pepper seeds that you find into the feed. The birds won't care, they don't get pepper burned, but squirrels (and you) do.

Picture related:

The squirells empty the bird feeders much faster than the birds would so the boomer then has to refill it sooner. Rinse and repeat until they constantly talk about the squirrels.
My parents bought my grandfather a slingshot for his squirrel problem/hatred and the dude took off part of his own thumbnail and had to go to an urgent care.

I don't hate them, but since grey ground squirrels are a primary vector for Bubonic plague in the southwest US, I prefer to keep them distanced.

Also don't have a bird feeder, planted natives to provide food and habitat.

They destroy whatever they can. They chew cables, rip siding and nest in insulation. Make wherever they can smell of piss. If you try to grew anything edible they eat the sprouting fruit, nuts, and leaves then start eating the bark and kill the tree.

Not a boomer but the little bastards chewed through the propane line on my grill so now I throw rocks at em when I see them. They're formally vermin in my eyes.

It's not my fault.

Every since one of them tore out half the insulation from my car hood and stuffed it in every corner of the engine compartment, I've had it out for them. Furry little obsessive compulsive weirdos.

I bought a squirrel proof bird feeder pole thing

https://jcswildlife.com/products/squirrel-stopper-deluxe-squirrel-proof-bird-feeder-pole-system-with-baffle

It works great, now I'm happy to watch the squirrels run around not eating my birds' seed.

Only downside so far is some wasps built a nest inside and stung me. But they're dead now.

They're destructive and difficult to deter. If squirrel hate is more common among Boomers, it's probably because they've lived long enough to find this out firsthand.

Put chili peppers in your bird feed. Birds aren't affected by the capsicum like mammals are.

Gen-Xer here, and I used to hate those furry-tailed rats. In one of my old apartments, one lived in the eaves of my building near my window and used to wake me up chewing on shit all the time. I've worked 2nd and 3rd shift jobs most of my adult life, and have found it hard enough to get other humans to respect my sleep time, let alone some rabid rodents that everyone else thinks are cute. I'm pretty much indifferent to them now, not being a property owner, but I can definitely understand why people hate them.

There used to be a clip on Fu Kung (remember that?) where a dude set up a trap on his back porch with a basket and some bungie cords, and when the squirrel took the bait, the guy cut the tether and flings the unsuspecting little bugger like 30 or 40 yards.

Not a boomer, but as a Brit - the grey squirrel is an invasive species which has pretty much driven out the native red squirrel from most of the country. They also cause damage to trees through bark stripping.

Not a boomer, but squirrels are pretty much just tree rats that make loud noises, could be the cause.

We don't? Boomer with bird feeder who loves squirrels.

I don't think it's age related.

37y/o here. Fuck Squirrels, grey and red, as well as chipmunks. They're all just different textured rats. Destroy shit to make nests, destroy shit to get at food or store food, disease spreading, fuckem all.

Anyone needs advice for bird feeders: 4x4 post in ground, thin walled metal rust resistant metal tubing covered in environment friendly lube. I've gone extreme with lard - looked like shit after a week, now I just buy vegetable oil spray and coat it. As long as there are no trees close enough for Squirrels to jump to the feeder you shouldn't have an issue. Every post I put in gets a 4 way cross on top to hang 4 individual feeders from. I do this for any feeder that isn't humming bird/oriole cuz they don't seem to get fucked with.

My bird feeder is for cat entertainment purposes anyway. Cats seem equally happy with birds or squirrels. Not a boomer but I guess I'd understand if I wanted to see birds.

They eat hella fruit off my fruits trees. And when I say eat, I mean take 3 bites and drop it on the ground to grab a new one and take 3 bites.

They waste 50 apricots to eat 3 apricots.

Until I started taking all the ground fruit and boiling it in a pot to make fruit juice for brandy distilling, it was a complete waste. Now it's still wasteful, because I'd rather eat the fruit, but at least I recover something from it.

Fuck squirrels.

Not a boomer and I don't hate squirrels but one day I walked out onto the porch to have my morning coffee and a smoke and the fattest fuckin squirrel I've ever seen in my life was sitting there at eye level in the bird feeder staring back at me too satiated (or smug, I couldn't tell) to move after having eaten all the feed for several days straight. I was refilling it daily which is unusual but I never thought I'd meet the culprit in this way.

It's a thing.