On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:12:02 -0400, Frank
wrote:

Hector Hound wrote:
Hi. My first post is a puzzle. My apples have disappeared! I have two
trees, about four years old. One day last week, there were all my
apples - gone. Well, all except for a few at the top of each tree, from
about five feet upwards. The grass underneath the trees was trampled and
there were no apples on the ground.

I know the obvious answer is kids and if I can't find another I'll have
to settle for that. The problem is that, for various reasons, I think
it's unlikely in this case. Based on the height of the apples that were
left, they would have been very small kids - too young for the usual
profile of apple-takers. And I just know the neighbourhood and the kids
and my garden would be very hard to get into, especially for small kids,
has never been "visited" before and there were no signs of entry.

So - is there an animal that takes apples? Foxes? There are foxes in
the neighbourhood. I believe foxes are omnivorous and the height of the
apples left would fit the fox theory.

Any other ideas? Has anybody else had this experience? Thanks for any
information/suggestions.

Hector.




Around here, deer are the culprits. Look for droppings and hoof prints.


I can't imagine that 4 year old apple trees are very large and have
many apples... those are mere saplings. One would certainly know
whether there were deer about, if there are there'd be no need for
this post... in fact were there deer not only would there be no
apples, there'd be no trees, they'd have long ago eaten them.

If not the neighbor's kids perhaps the neighbor picked some...
couldn't take more than a couple minutes to harvest a couple four year
old trees... I have 2 seven year old apple trees, they're barely 1 1/2
caliper and barely 8' tall.