On 7/7/2011 11:21 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
j wrote:
On 7/7/2011 6:22 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:
"j" wrote in message
...
On 7/7/2011 9:01 AM, Frank wrote:
On 7/7/2011 8:38 AM, j wrote:
I've got about a 4 year old peach, and a few blueberries.

Last year, the peaches mysteriously vanished one day, even though
I had sorta draped netting over them.

Is there an alternative, and when should I be ready for the
assault?

I think you have opossums, how different their behaviour is I am not
sure. As for racoons I have no idea.

I had no idea we might be talking two different species. Our (o)possums
are marsupials, the only ones we have here.


I'm on the edge of woodlands here in Atlanta. No deer though.


Here the possums would live in the woods and sneak into the orchard at
night.

I do see mass migrations of blackbirds, among others, but I would
have thought they were messy eaters and would leave a lot of damaged
fruit. Here, nothing.

Birds are messy, they leave damaged fruit on the tree and drop bits all
over, so do fruit bats. You would see the birds in the day time. Rats
will also attack fruit if hungry enough, they are not neat eaters either.

If you have more fruit ripening on the trees you may have to go out with
a light at night and catch the rascals in the act to find out what they
are.

Fruit is about half size, so still ripening. I haven't lost any this
year, but last year I lost it all, and all at once. Went out to check on
the peaches, and there weren't any! Nor any on the ground... Came as a
shock!

Jeff


David.