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.




It's a lot of work, but I use two Havaharts to remove most of the
squirrels from my yard. They can't resist peanut butter smeared
on some bread. Sometimes, it is only a matter of minutes until
I have both traps filled. So far, I have removed over 8 squirrels.
Once you get the population down, it takes longer to fill the traps.
Unfortunately, after a year or two, new squirrels will move into this
'abandoned' territory, so you still have to do some yearly
maintenance.

It is not foolproof, but sort of works for me.


Sherwin