I'm hoping some of you squirrel experts can help explain something that is greatly irritating and perplexing my 84 year old mother-in-law. Last week the squirrels in her back yard chewed the chimes off her wind-chime and took all eight up the tree! Three have fallen down but they still have some. I have searched the internet for answers but it seems that this has never happened to anyone! Or at least no one has written about it. I can find plenty of reports of every kind of food being taken and even golf balls stolen in the middle of play but the only thing people say about wind-chimes is you can use them to scare squirrels away (and most think that doesn't work). The chimes have been there for years but suddenly some squirrels have taken a liking to them. Is it because they are shiny (well, metal anyway)?

In a related question, a few years ago we had to replace the painted wood moldings around our garage door because a squirrel chewed nearly all the way into our garage. I know other people who have had similar damage. Also, and even worse, I have a yard statue that was down away from the house, very close to the woods, which squirrels ate a hole in the back of and the nose and chin and one foot nearly off! I don't know what the statue is made of, I think some kind of resin. After repair and new paint I brought the statue up close to the house where it has been chewed a bit more but not as badly. Is it the paint that is so tasty?

I do understand the chewing behavior (even though there is plenty of unpainted wood to chew!) but the wind-chime issue seems a little different.

Thank you for any ideas, my mother-in-law is rather upset by this and I would like to be able to offer her at least some understanding of squirrel psychology!!!