Defend the feeder and garden
The reference shelf
Every purchase in this category is downstream of a number: how high, how far, what mesh, what height. These are the pages where those numbers are worked out, sourced by name, and shown rather than asserted.
If you read nothing else here, read the clearance geometry. Almost every baffle that fails was installed at the wrong height or with too little clear air around it, and no amount of steel fixes that.
The clearance spec
Four to five feet high, eight to ten feet clear. The sourced numbers, the arithmetic, and the popular page that gets it wrong.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Erva SB6 Pole-Mount Disk Baffle, 22.5 in · #ad
Two numbers decide whether your setup works, and they are the two numbers most pages in this category either omit or confuse with each other. One is vertical: four to five feet, the height of the baffle. One is horizontal: eight to ten feet, the clear air around the feeder.
A page-one competitor publishes six to ten feet for the height, which is unbuildable on a standard feeder pole. We show the disagreement, name both sources, and work the arithmetic through so you can check it against your own yard.
Read the clearance guide
Guide
Yes, within a narrow set of conditions. The four failure modes and how to diagnose yours in ten minutes.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Erva SB6 Pole-Mount Disk Baffle, 22.5 in · #ad
Guide
The whole subject in one page: the two jump distances, the three barriers, and where to go for each fight.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Erva SB6 Pole-Mount Disk Baffle, 22.5 in · #ad
Guide
Seven methods ranked by reliability rather than by how often they get recommended. The best one is free.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Brome Squirrel Buster Plus · #ad
Guide
Site, anchor, baffle, hang, manage the spill. The order is the point, and most people do it backwards.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Squirrel Stopper Sequoia Pole System · #ad
Guide
Squirrels work a garden rather than browse it, which is why a cage holds and a drape does not.
Scooter M.
Top pick: ANC POP Pop-Up Mesh Plant Cover, 40 x 40 x 30 in · #ad
Guide
Too light for a weight mechanism, small enough to pass 2 in mesh. Why the answer is a finer aperture.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Woodlink Caged Seed Tube Feeder · #ad
Guide
Fence, repel, deter, replant — in that order, with the published height that decides step one.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Tenax Select Deer Fence, 7.5 ft x 100 ft · #ad
Guide
Eight to ten feet, per every extension service. Why the market sells 7.5, and when that is enough.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Tenax Select Deer Fence, 7.5 ft x 100 ft · #ad
Guide
Every startle method decays. Which ones decay slowest, and how to slow the rest down.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Orbit Yard Enforcer Motion-Activated Sprinkler (62100) · #ad
Guide
The slinky and the wire layer work. The greased pole harms wildlife. Which homemade fixes have a real mechanism.
Scooter M.
Top pick: Erva SB6 Pole-Mount Disk Baffle, 22.5 in · #ad