Porcupines will go after tool handles because of the salt in the sweat that is left on the wood. It is more likely that the damage to the feeder is squirrels. My, homemade, native cedar feeders were always damaged, and holes have been eaten and edges gnawed on 5 gallon plastic buckets in which I have attempted to store seed. Even the lids of the trash cans. My house, being cedar, is, occasionally attacked, and the barn, similarly covered, has been invaded. They enlarge the holes in the birdhouses I build and I have, actually, put hardware cloth around the holes and edged the houses with aluminum channel. I designed a clever feeder on a suction cup out of a clear soda bottle and attached it to the window. The birds loved it and the squirrels could not quite reach it, centered in the glass. In frustration, they gnawed, and totally defaced the wooden window frames outside. My only bird feeder is a metal one on a copper pipe that closes with the weight of a squirrel on the feeding bar. It has worked well for the past 4 years.

Thanks bogturtle. I wonder if a mixture of tabasco and water painted on the cedar would keep them away from the wood. Has anybody ever tried it?

At our house it was the squirrels that did the most damage to feeders so now I spend the extra money and get metal feeders. We've also seen mice scale the pole and gnaw at the feeders to get at the seed as well but it's the squirrels that will destroy feeders, either plastic or wood.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA

Rats here in Florida do that!They wait until evening and begin there work.