James wrote:
On Jun 26, 11:32 am, George Shirley wrote:

James wrote:

I got the netting but it get all tangled up with my shirt buttons and
is impossible to get over the tree. It's almost invisible.

There are at least 4 squirrels dinning on my pears. I only got 4
Bartlet left on the tree so I can just wrap them. I had just thin the
Asian pears and right after the squirrels thin them a whole lot more.
Was going to shoot them up they are young ones and I didn't have the
heart.

We use two people with a pole about 10-12 feet long each. At the end of
the pole I used a saw and cut a Y. The Y holds the netting while you get
it up and over the top. Put the netting on after the fruit sets but
before it gets any bigger. Pull the netting together at the base of the
tree and tie it loosely around the trunk. This spring was the first time
I netted my fruit trees and also the first time I beat the squirrels and
the grackles to the fruit. I would shoot the tree rats but I live in a
town that has, unwisely, proclaimed itself a "wildlife refuge." The old
biddy next door puts out corn on the cob for the tree rats and they
bring it over to my place and drop it all over the place. Occasionally
my Rat Terrier gets a squirrel and that's legal but not enough to please
me when there's twenty of them after my garden and fruit. Not to mention
the electrical transformers they commit suicide with blowing up. HTH

George


I think I'd leave the net over the tree once in place. Fruit theives
can have any fruit that set over the net.

Only problem is that limbs tend to grow during the year in my climate
and then it's hell getting the netting off without cutting it up.
Normally the netting will last several years. I hit on the idea of just
pruning off new growth that grows through the netting and it's working
so far.

George