A squirrel has found itself in a slippery situation as it scrambled to get to some bird feed - only to find itself sliding down a pole coated in VASELINE.

Sally Stranix, 64, says she sees the greedy rodent in her garden on a daily basis - and wanted to stop it from stealing food out of her bird feeders. And after searching online for squirrel deterrents, Sally, from Ipswich, Suffolk, found a quick and easy - and amusing - method to keep the creatures away - smearing Vaseline on the bird feeder pole. Now, Sally watches from her sitting room window as the grey squirrel desperately tries to clamber up to the bird food - only to slowly slide back down the pole again.

Gran-of-six Sally said: "It's caused a lot of fun to watch. My grandchildren love it when they come over. They'll call out 'squirrel' when they see it, and find it so funny to watch it slide down the pole like a fireman.

"I think it's quite a young squirrel, because it's quite small, and the bigger ones seem to know how to just jump up to the bird feeder, whereas this one climbs the pole. I've been using Vaseline for a few weeks now - it stops the squirrel from getting to the bird food, although it doesn't stop it from coming back. But every time it tries to climb the pole, back down it goes."

Sally added: "We live next to a little woods, so having squirrels in the garden is inevitable. But they're so greedy. I just want some food to be left for the birds. There's plenty of food for the squirrels to get elsewhere."