[Tweeters] varmints at bird-feeders

[Gary Bletsch via Tweeters]

Dear Tweeters,
To all of Tweeterdom who have expressed dismay when their bird-feeders are beset with rats and other varmints, I commiserate. 
When I lived in rural Skagit County, AKA paradise, the occasional rat would visit my feeders. I'd simply shoot them. When they tried taking over my shed, and began nesting inside my golf bag, I trapped them. I never did figure out if they were Norway Rats or Black Rats, but trap them I did, and managed to attain a sort of Pax Rodenta.
The rats also invaded our attic, and one time, they gnawed their way into a plastic tote that we had stored in the crawlspace up there. The miserable critters proceeded to chew up a bunch of baby things that we'd hoped to pass on to our grandchildren some day. More trapping ensued.
Now I find myself living in purgatory, also known as suburbia, here in Western New York. If I so much as pointed a BB gun at a rodent, I'd probably end up in Attica or Sing Sing. All of our neighbors poison the living daylights out of their pristine little yards, making sure that there isn't so much as a single ant crawling around--but they ooh and ahh about the cute deer and the adorable bunnies and such. Meanwhile, I am besieged with more varmints than I ever saw when I lived out in the Washington countryside! My feeders have been emptied and destroyed by bear, deer, Eastern Grey Squirrels, and Red Squirrels, and probably a few others that have come in the night. I haven't spotted a rat yet, but they are probably around. We also have both House Mice and Deer Mice invading our house more often than we ever did out in the boonies. Go figure.
Some critter keeps coming in the night and drinking up all of the sugar water in my hummingbird feeder. I always find one of the yellow plastic flowers on the ground, beneath an empty feeder. I have to take the hummingbird feeder in every night. Quite often of an evening, I'll see a disappointed Ruby-throated Hummingbird inspecting the dangling red top of the feeder, but not finding the glass bottle or the little yellow faux daisies, when I've taken it in too soon.
Mrs. Bletsch bought me a "squirrel-proof" feeder, made by Brome. It deters squirrels, but does not defeat them. Lately, I have begun trying a new defense. Every time I fill up the bird-feeders, I add some red pepper, the kind that people sprinkle on their pizza. It seems to help. I also buy the hot-pepper suet when I can find it, although it isn't usually in stock in our depauperate stores here. Sometimes I even sprinkle a little Tabasco sauce on the seed, once I've poured it in. 
I wish I had some words of wisdom about rats at feeders, but other than plinking them with a pellet gun, I'm not sure what to suggest! 
A blowgun might work, though....
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch

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