Just before the war with the squirrels, all seemed perfect, idyllic even, in the backyard at Frank and Mary Ann Yanesky's house in Barnesville.

Stone walkways, neatly edged, led to various areas such as the gazebo, raised-bed plantings and gazing balls. Varieties of flowers and shrubs had been chosen so that something was always in bloom.From the comfortable seating in the sun porch, attached to the back of the house, they could kick off their shoes and look out upon the results of their many days of landscaping work.In the fall, brightly plumaged songbirds flitted happily from feeder to feeder, their bright colors a welcome addition after the last of the summer's blooms had faded.But that was before the war with the squirrels."We had one of the tube-style feeders, and one day I looked out, and a squirrel had gotten the top right off it," Mary Ann Yanesky said. "All the birdseed was gone, and all that stuck out from the feeder was his tail.""That was it; that was the clincher," she said.Not nuts about squirrelsThe Yaneskys are not alone; all over suburban America similar battles are taking place.This time of year, many people shopping for bird feeders are drawn to a specific advertising sign the picture of a squirrel within a circle with a line drawn through it. Descriptions such as "squirrel proof" or "Squirrel Be Gone" also make buyers reach for certain models."A lot of people don't make it far past the front door, and they're asking for them (squirrel-proof bird feeders)," said Shirley Frantz, a manager at M&S Hardware in Tamaqua. "They definitely work; I've had mine for about five years already."It's no surprise that squirrels are especially active this time of year. From December to February, and again from May to June, the squirrels are in the midst of their mating season and, ahem, burning extra calories. The gestation period is 44 days, and the young will begin leaving the nest about 12 weeks after they're born.Sciurus Carolinensis, squirrels, are also known as shadow tails. First recorded in the Carolinas, they can be found in the eastern, southern and Midwestern United States. They're easy to identify, with their white undersides, gray fur and large bushy tail.Because of the way they store food in various small caches, they are called "scatter hoarders." Some of the caches are temporary, with the item retrieved within an hour or days; and some caches are long-term, to be used when food is not abundant.Each squirrel makes several thousand caches during a calendar year and can find the spots with great accuracy using landmarks and smell. Squirrels may steal another squirrel's cache; researchers have learned that if a squirrel realizes it's being watched by another squirrel, it will actually "pretend" to make a cache.Items for the cache include nuts, tree bark, berries, seeds, acorn, mushrooms and of course, contraband pilfered from bird feeders. Squirrels communicate by tail flicking, posturing and facial expressions, and also have a number of different vocalizations. If a human imitates the clicking noises a squirrel is making, the squirrel will often keep the exchange going; don't imitate the squirrel growl though, since that is the mating call.Truces are declaredTry as you may to stop them, squirrels still get some seed because it falls on the ground. The Yaneskys have one of the commercial squirrel-proof feeders, and Frank also constructed one from a plan Mary Ann saw in a magazine."I had seen the squirrel inside the tube feeder and I remembered seeing the article," Mary Ann said. "I told him, I want, I need, I have to have this."The Yaneskys have nephews named Ron and Paul, and after a political election some years ago a number of Ron Paul candidate signs had not been collected. They picked up the signs to give to their nephews, and also saved the metal support posts from the signs."When we collected the signs, that wasn't my intention, to make something out of the posts," Mary Ann Yanesky said. "We also needed two-liter soda bottles to make the project, and since neither of us drinks soda, we got them from friends.""She keeps saying 'we' but there was no we," Frank said good-naturedly. Frank, an engineer, retired from Air Products as a senior designer. "It was her, I was just the builder."With the metal posts strung together and holes drilled into the soda bottles, the bottles were threaded along the posts to form a continuous line. Now it was time for the Yaneskys to kick off their shoes and again look out upon the results a comedy of squirrels trying to get to the feeders but slipping off the soda bottles.Yet the show was soon over."They learned right that they couldn't do it, and they gave up," Mary Ann Yanesky said. "The young ones will give it a try, but they give up too."