Cole's Wild Bird Products FS08 Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce, 8-Ounce

Cole’s Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce made my squirrels disappear & made my birds happier!! I love my birds & have multiple feeders. Over the years the squirrel population at my feeders increased. Early 2019 they took over. Squirrel proof bird feeders along with any type of squirrel blocker never kept them away. I tried the rodent spray/multiple things, nothing made the squirrels go away until I finally choose to purchase Cole’s Seed Sauce! With time & patience I was squirrel-free!! I was relieved & along with my birds, HAPPY. I read many reviews. I hope this one helps you. #1 Preparation & Dedicated Time #2 Keeping yourself safe #3 Following the instructions #4 The clean up. It took some time but it works for me. I had a major squirrel problem & I haven’t seen one near my feeders in months. It took about 2 weeks for the squirrels to get a taste or smell of Cole’s sauce & they were gone!! They weren’t hanging from my feeders or even on the ground eating dropped feed. Indeed GONE! Yes, I initially was worried on how the sauce would impact my birds. After about a week I was seeing more birds than ever! They do love their feed with this sauce. I solely use sunflower seeds. I have so much to share from my experience so you too can feel the relief I did in NOT seeing squirrels & truly enjoying my birds. •The bottle is securely closed. It’s recommended to use gloves & avoid exposing it to your skin. This is vital as it has a hot sting to it & the smell is one you do not want to inhale. “Flaming” indeed. These words are from my experiences & I now have a simple procedure in place. I use 1 big steel bird feed holder for the mixture. I have a 2nd filled with ready to use sunflower seeds. Purchasing a 2nd can was the key. Based on the directions I figured 20 pounds of bird feed needed a 1/3rd cup of sauce. It’s worked perfectly. I bought long sleeve gloves to protect my skin. Thoroughly mixing the sauce evenly with the seed is important. The birds love every seed that’s covered. Rain wetting the seed didn’t impact its purpose at all. I initially made 20lbs of seed but I’ve increased the batch to mixing 40lbs at a time because my bird population has increased & I don’t mind! The creator of this Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce was a genius. I’m thrilled with this sauce. I realized I had to take the TIME, remain DETERMINED & practice PATIENCE in order to find SUCCESS. Commitment made my bird feeders and yard SQUIRREL-FREE. The VALUE of this sauce is substantial obviously. I always keep bottles in stock. The price fluctuates so I keep an eye on that. I absolutely recommend.

This is kind of expensive, but it works like a charm. I've fought the squirrels over bird seed for years now and bought several different so called "squirrel proof" feeders with no success. Since I've been using this, I've had no trouble with squirrels getting up on my feeders and the birds still seem to love the seeds I'm feeding. WARNING! This stuff is really potent and you absolutely don't want to get it on your hands or in your eyes. We wear gloves when mixing it with the bird seed and are very careful how we handle it. Just be careful (but it's worth a little trouble).

Mixed an entire 8-oz bottle into the amount of safflower seed that fills a 5-gallon bucket. About 20-25 lbs. That concentration might be a bit lighter than recommended for starters, but it's what I ended up doing. Filled my feeder Sunday and sat at the kitchen table to watch. First squirrel showed up, put its mouth to one of the feeding ports and took off! Another one showed up, nibbled a little, then decided something was not to its liking. These two squirrels came back and hung around for a while. One tried the seed again and still didn't like it. Later on, a (different?) squirrel showed up, dangled from the hook and ate for several minutes, eventually leaving of its own accord. So I guess the sauce isn't 100% effective. That was Sunday. Monday and Tuesday only one squirrel came back to nibble and a feeder-full made it to Tuesday night. I refilled it this morning (Wednesday). Two squirrels came back, but neither one stayed very long. One took one bite and left; the other fed for maybe 30 seconds but then gave up and left more abruptly than when they've enjoyed their snack. A nice variety of birds has returned. Cardinal, house finch, nuthatch, titmouse, chickadee, Carolina wren, mourning dove. Haven't had large numbers at any one time, but they definitely like the sauced seed. As I write, one cardinal has the feeder to himself and is enjoying a leisurely dinner as the sun is about to set. Be careful filling your feeder. This stuff can sting. Four stars because verdict on squirrels is still out. I'll revise my rating if experience warrants. For future purchases, I'll save money and buy the larger size. November 2021 update: Put the feeder back out for the 21-22 season a couple weeks ago. Mixed another slightly lighter concentration of sauce into the 100% safflower seed. The birds came back within an hour. Squirrels have been back -- but not on the feeder! They'll sit on the adjacent deck railing eating walnuts they've picked from our trees or retrieved from the ground. Sometimes they just sit and watch. But I have not seen a single one climb out to the feeder to eat seed. So far, so good. May 2022 update: We've put away our feeder for the summer. Since the squirrels were staying away from the feeder, I tried an experiment when I reordered seed: I didn't mix any hot sauce into it -- and the squirrels stayed away. I think they've come to expect spicy seed and have learned not to try ours any more. I should add that we're feeding 100% safflower, which squirrels supposedly don't like, but not all the squirrels in our neighborhood know that. Will I be able to feed un-spiced seed this autumn without the squirrels gobbling it all? Or will I need to break out the hot sauce to keep them away? Only time will tell.

Before I knew about pepper-based squirrel defense: I must have had some very delicious seed before because the whole forest came up and was all over the feeder - despite that I set out separate squirrel/bunny food on a plate on the ground (which squirrels etc love), they still mauled the bird feeder mercilessly and they swung it around so much they emptied it completely all over my porch. I bought a shop vac here on amazon just to clean up. After I learned of this interesting solution: I filled the bird feeder with another pre-coated seed but to my dismay I still had squirrels hanging upside down this time focusing on the seut blocks on the sides. So, I took this product ("Cole's FS08 Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce") and followed the directions and carefully used gloves and applied this to the suet and a bit more on the seeds. I haven't seen a squirrel flip the bird feeder upside down since then and the ground is very clean now! But, unfortunately, there have been hardly any birds for the past 3 days since. A once-popular destination with half a dozen birds at once is now virtually abandoned. In the first day I watched for quite awhile and did see a few visitors still come around, but they treated it differently, fluttering their wings more, some not landing. Over the next couple days I did see a few land and dig in like before. So it's not a total wipe-out, but I definitely noticed a profound change and unless it's a heck of a coincidence (coincidental warmer weather in the past few days?) then I'd say this sauce is a bird repellant as well as squirrel repellant. However, this might be user error. Maybe I overdid it and shouldn't have combined pre-treated seed with this sauce? I read a scientific whitepaper where they studied this and supposedly the heat doesn't bother the birds. I mean, and this is sad but it's science, they even referenced experiments with injected capsicum into pidgeon eyes and veins and there was no effect or reaction. Anyway this convinced me nothing spice-based would repell the birds... but this did! Or at least, I think it did. It could be a really big coincidence. So, I will keep watching and adjust my review if I learn more.

This product is hot! I recommend wearing gloves and being extremely careful. I wore gloves and throughly washed up to my elbows with hot water and Dawn, yet somehow managed to burn my skin when I rubbed my face 30min later. THAT BEING SAID, this did not deter the squirrels. I must have mutant super-squirrels at my house and I think, at this point, I'm just helping them evolve into super beasts which will one day take over the world.

I have been using this for 2 months and the squirrels and raccoons are not impressed but the birds love it. I’m saving money on bird seed as I’m not feeding the whole forest anymore! I do feed the squirrels in a different feeder, but they stay away from the HOT feeder.

Not sure why other posts have downgraded this. It works extremely well. Nothing I did stopped the squirrels from eating the birdseed out of the birdfeeder. This liquid stopped them immediately. It's so strong that I would advise you to mix it with the seed outdoors. The vapors alone set me into a coughing fit the first time I used it.

### UPDATE 5/22/2013 ### OK.... so this product doesn't work as well as I thought. I was at home yesterday (took a day off of work) and I saw a plump squirrel sitting right on my bird feeder, chomping away on the seeds. I actually watched him for a couple minutes, thinking that maybe the spiciness would register and then make him not want to eat any more. He obviously didn't mind it because he was eating the whole time (plus the time that he was there before I saw him). I actually used extra hot sauce too for that batch. So it looks like I'm going back to the drawing board. I might have to resort to buying a squirrel proof feeder... which makes me sad because the current feeder I have cost me a lot of money. Rating this product down to 2 stars. The reason I didn't mark it as 1 star is because I don't run out of seeds as fast as I used to. So maybe it's just that one squirrel that likes the heat. I haven't seen the other ones around. ### ORIGINAL REVIEW ### Almost a year ago (back in June 2012), I started watching & feeding birds on my deck. I have several feeders so I get a nice assortment of birds in Tennessee. I lasted through last Summer, Fall, & Winter with no squirrels. But somewhere along the length of me feeding them this spring, I started noticing more & more squirrels in my yard despite it being fenced off with no trees. I live on a slope, so my deck is high and I saw them start congregating just below the bird feeders. It wasn't long until I saw them up on my deck. The feeder where I put my sunflower seeds and peanuts are mounted off my deck on this pole I got from Amazon (for some reason Amazon won't let me insert the product link) [ http://www.amazon.com/Green-Esteem-60500-36-Inch-Extended/dp/B002I5NO1C ]. On several occasions, I've found the squirrels actually jumping off my deck onto that feeder. A couple of times I chased them away, they fell at least 20 feet from that feeder to the ground but always came back for more seeds. I've tried various methods to keep them from coming onto my deck but they simply would not go away. As a last resort, I wanted to buy a BB gun NOT TO KILL, but to just scare them. I remember as a kid, I had one of those Red Rider BB Guns as featured in the movie "A Christmas Story". I've gotten shot by that gun before and it never pierced the skin. So when I asked my dad if he had a BB gun for me to have, he ended up giving me some $200+ pellet gun that fires at around 800 feet per second. Rather than telling him no (and hurt his feelings), I gladly accepted it but I immediately placed it in my utility closet. TRUST ME, I HAVE NOT USED IT. I know for a fact that this pellet gun would kill any small game and that was NOT MY INTENTIONS. I went back to the drawing board and made a list of other things to try by sorting them from cheapest to most expensive. So here I am, writing about the Cole's Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce. My alternative was to purchase pre-mixed "hot seed" that was a couple more dollars expensive than the regular seed I bought, but then I figured... why not try & make it at home for cheaper. At $9.15 at the time of purchase from Amazon, Cole's Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce was rated to cover at least 30lbs of seed, which makes it a better buy. When unbagged, I store all my bird seed in a plastic container big enough to store about 10-12 lbs of seed. Rather than following the directions and using a spatula to mix, I just placed the lid back on the container and shook it for about 5 minutes straight. It ended up coating every inch of the seed in this reddish sauce. Be aware that the sauce is oil based. It can and will get messy. The consistency looks EXACTLY like "chili oil" (Google it) that you find in Asian restaurants but without the seeds. The smell is also spicy, so beware to those with sensitive noses. For those of you sensitive to hot foods, I would definitely suggestion gloves and goggles (if you don't have goggles, use sunglasses). I'm used to hot foods (I like them and grew up with them) and trust me when I say this stuff is pretty darn spicy. I know it's not "food grade", but my curiosity made me taste test a drop on my finger and my mouth had a spicy burning sensation on my tongue for at least 10 minutes. I *thought* I washed my hands thoroughly and when I went to itch my eye, I had a nice burn there too for 5 minutes even AFTER washing my hands. So again, BE CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF! As for the actual product effectiveness, I'm pretty sure it works. The reason I'm not 100% sure is because I'm not home when I have to go to work (7 to 5 PM). The only way I've been able to gauge/detect if squirrels have been in the feeder is based either seeing them (on the weekends) or noticing how many seeds are left from the previous feeding (I usually feed once per day in the morning). Since using this stuff, there is a LOT more bird seed in my feeder than prior to using the product and I have yet to see any squirrel. And just in case you're wondering (maybe the birds don't like it either), I still get the same amount of birds coming to the feeder despite having used the hot sauce. I will come back after a couple more weeks to update whether this product permanently deters squirrels or not. But my preliminary test of this product rates it 5 stars.