99windstar wrote:
This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we
didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit
we had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats.
Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is
how do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down,
they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?

I doubt the trees are the sole source of rats. What do they live off
the other 11 months? Besides, they don't particularly like fruits. They
can manufacture most vitamins inside their body and they prefer more
caloric food (they are ,after all, squirrels without bushy tails). If
the trees are isolated from other vegetation, a metal disk three feet
up the trunk will impede access to the branches, and picking up the
dropped fruit will do the rest. If you feel like giving them a long
lasting memory, an electric fence wire wrapped around the trunks will
make them apple-shy for a long time. My electric fence has been in
disuse for 3 years, but the local mammals still remember it.