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#16
29-09-2009, 06:51 PM
posted to rec.gardens
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Where have my apples gone?
"Hector Hound" wrote in message
... Thank you all for your suggestions and experiences. I can rule out some of the suggested culprits. We don't have coyotes, possums or raccoons in this country and no moose, cockatoos nor yet koalas. There are no wild deer in this area either. The nature of the fencing around the garden (evergreen hedge about ten feet high, with wire fencing in places) rules out anything larger than about fox (or very small kid) size (though kids could open the gate. Maybe foxes could too - they're said to be clever, aren't they? ). Or something with wings. I took SteveB's advice and did a more detailed investigation and I have some progress to report. I found a faeces dropping nearby that I can't identify. I looked up fox droppings and this doesn't really look like them. It's an amorphous mass about the area of a CD, grayish-brown and the consistency of a smooth paté. It could be a dog dropping. Do dogs eat apples? Would one dog take about 40 apples (and leave none behind on the ground)? Anyway, SteveB, thank you for the laugh, preceded by shock, that I got when I read the following lines in your post (about the coyote), the shock being due to the position of the line break: . I found out later that it had eaten a turkey, a cat, and a kid  goat . Thank you all, Hector. -- Hector Hound There's a couple of kids down there I'm sorry he missed. -- The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson - So, how's that change and hope working for you? |
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#17
02-10-2009, 04:43 AM
posted to rec.gardens
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Where have my apples gone?
After coming back from vacation in the fall I found all of my yellow
delicious apples GONE..there was absolutely no trace of anything. I was going to report it to our local police but then I considered how foolish that would be. The following year I found out who and what happened. Grey Squirrels I watched in disbelief as they stripped that tree of all it's fruit, not one was eaten or dropped and they were huge..most likely squirrels are your problem. "brooklyn1" wrote in message ... On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:12:02 -0400, Frank wrote: 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. Around here, deer are the culprits. Look for droppings and hoof prints. I can't imagine that 4 year old apple trees are very large and have many apples... those are mere saplings. One would certainly know whether there were deer about, if there are there'd be no need for this post... in fact were there deer not only would there be no apples, there'd be no trees, they'd have long ago eaten them. If not the neighbor's kids perhaps the neighbor picked some... couldn't take more than a couple minutes to harvest a couple four year old trees... I have 2 seven year old apple trees, they're barely 1 1/2 caliper and barely 8' tall. |
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#18
07-10-2009, 08:05 AM
posted to rec.gardens
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Where have my apples gone?
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 |
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#19
08-10-2009, 12:22 AM
posted to rec.gardens
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Where have my apples gone?
Phisherman wrote:
snip... Deer like them. I have seen them stand on their back haunches to get apples. I thought dogs were strictly carnivores (never had a dog--always wanted one) but I have seen them eat pears and apples, not sure if that is good for them though. Caught a skunk using a slice of apple, but actually trying to catch a muskrat. Personally, I love apples and they are currently in season. Dogs are very adaptable and one which is well-socialized to humans is likely to try many "human" foods. I had a golden lab which had very human tastes. For example she liked pizza with any sort of topping including jalapeño peppers. She like beer although I did limit her intake to far less than she would have wanted. On the gardening side (keeping this on-topic) she learned that she really loved sugar snap peas which I offered her as we walked through the raised beds. This was cute until she decided that while I was away she should pick her own which involved tearing down the vines and stripping them. She also dug up beets and since I never saw any lying about I'm assuming she was eating them. Probably her favorite human food was ice cream sandwiches and whenever I brought some from the store I got one, my wife got one, and Brandy got one (and she would have gladly eaten ours too). -- John McGaw [Knoxville, TN, USA] http://johnmcgaw.com |
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#20
08-10-2009, 08:43 PM
posted to rec.gardens
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Where have my apples gone?
SteveB wrote:
wrote in message ... I heard on "The FiringLine Forums" that some coyotes like apples. On YouTube they say that Gray Squirrels eat apples too. KM Correct on both counts. I had a coyote come out in broad daylight to feed on crabapples (those that are about one inch in diameter) and it returned several days in a row. I thought it was cute, being a newcomer to this ranch life. I found out later that it had eaten a turkey, a cat, and a kid goat at the neighbor's house. Any squirrel eats apples. Steve Going by the "five feet" and "trampled ground" mentioned in the OP squirrels seem to out of the question -- no reason that a squirrel would be limited to that height an no squirrel could trample anything substantial. Based on the same information the height and trampling seem to leave coyotes out of the picture. But take even a small deer and five feet is easy to accomplish even it if has to rear up on its hind legs and those sharp deer hooves are likely to make a mess of the ground in short order. My vote still goes for deer even in the OP is in the UK since they are having a deer population explosion of major proportions and anywhere in North America deer are common and fearless. -- John McGaw [Knoxville, TN, USA] http://johnmcgaw.com |
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#21
20-10-2009, 07:14 PM
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Quote:
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#22
23-10-2009, 03:41 PM
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Quote:
Judith |
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