Obligatory "first post on this sub", "this is more my dad's story not mine", and "this happened years ago" thing. Now on to what you want to read. 

At my old house, my family had a bird feeder in the backyard, mounted on a wooden post. We'd used it for years, but at one point we noticed that seed had begun to go missing. It started small, but then more and more seed just vanished overnight. Way more than the birds near our house could possibly have eaten. Plus the top of the feeder was left open some nights, suggesting some animal eating the seed. Then my dad found the cause when he looked out the window late one night. Sitting on the bird feeder was a giant, grey, fat raccoon. The thing hissed at dad and ran off. We found it would climb the post, open the top of the feeder, and eat its fill every night. 

I proposed a trick I'd read about where we'd put a white sheet over the top of the feeder at night. It worked for a little while, but then the family started forgetting to put the sheet on and the raccoon would be back every time we lapsed. Dad also tried putting a bungee cord over the top, but the raccoon knew how to take that off. After a few weeks of this dad got fed up with the animal eating the birdseed we buy and decided to fix it once and for all.

He opened the top of the bird feeder and poured Tabasco sauce over the top layer of seed. Then he closed the top and left it there overnight. 

The next morning there was evidence that something had opened the top of the bird feeder, taken a single bite of seed, and left. The raccoon never came back, seed never vanished mysteriously again, and the birds ate the rest of the spicy seed without incident. (we didn't put Tabasco on the seed after that)
user
A raccoon stole our bird seed, so
assistant
Obligatory "first post on this sub", "this is more my dad's story not mine", and "this happened years ago" thing. Now on to what you want to read. 

At my old house, my family had a bird feeder in the backyard, mounted on a wooden post. We'd used it for years, but at one point we noticed that seed had begun to go missing. It started small, but then more and more seed just vanished overnight. Way more than the birds near our house could possibly have eaten. Plus the top of the feeder was left open some nights, suggesting some animal eating the seed. Then my dad found the cause when he looked out the window late one night. Sitting on the bird feeder was a giant, grey, fat raccoon. The thing hissed at dad and ran off. We found it would climb the post, open the top of the feeder, and eat its fill every night. 

I proposed a trick I'd read about where we'd put a white sheet over the top of the feeder at night. It worked for a little while, but then the family started forgetting to put the sheet on and the raccoon would be back every time we lapsed. Dad also tried putting a bungee cord over the top, but the raccoon knew how to take that off. After a few weeks of this dad got fed up with the animal eating the birdseed we buy and decided to fix it once and for all.

He opened the top of the bird feeder and poured Tabasco sauce over the top layer of seed. Then he closed the top and left it there overnight. 

The next morning there was evidence that something had opened the top of the bird feeder, taken a single bite of seed, and left. The raccoon never came back, seed never vanished mysteriously again, and the birds ate the rest of the spicy seed without incident. (we didn't put Tabasco on the seed after that)
user
Dad put Tabasco on birdseed, the raccoon
assistant