Another alternative to the plastic bottles is an inverted cone of sheet
metal (tin or aluminum) installed as high up the trunk as possible. If
the diameter is big enough, the squirrels would have dificulties scaling
over it, and them they would probably slide down it's steep sides. Cut
out
a circular piece of metal, flare an inner circle the diameter of the
tree,
bend the inner flaps up, and hold in place with a large hose clamp. Of
course, the surest way to solve the squirrel problem is to trap them. I
usually remove 20-30 a year, and near the end of the trapping, the
frequency of seeing new squirrels goes down to almost nothing. Of
course,
new squirrels will move in the following season, but I find that the
total
number seems to be going down every year.

Sherwin Dubren

Steve wrote:

Dianna Visek wrote:
Last summer was our first significant crop on our new peach trees. We
found that squirrels like peaches enormously greener than humans do!
Does anybody have experience keeping squirrels out of small trees?

TIA, Dianna

You could get even by painting the trunk and lower branches with tangle
trap. You would have some very messy squirrels! (probably not really a
good idea)

If the only way into the trees is up the trunk, there may be a chance.
If there are branches so low to the ground that squirrels can jump up to
them, your options are few.
Peaches are usually trained with a very short trunk before the branches
start. If, by chance, yours have a tall trunk, you might try stacking 2
liter soda bottles or pop bottles depending on where you live ;-)around
the trunk. Cut off the top and bottom, then slit the side. Slip them
around the trunk and stack as many as needed. They are very slippery
(remove the paper label) and hard to climb. (A single bottle half way up
my bird feeder pole was what finally worked for me.)
It depends on how smart and determined your squirrels are. I'm SURE some
have figured out how get around soda bottles.

OK, so the trunks are probably too short. I wonder what would happen if
you sprayed hot pepper wax on the green peaches they would get to first?
By harvest time it would be weakened and you will peel them anyway,
right? Just a thought.

Steve (the other one)