Lawrence Akutagawa wrote:
hmmm...try a solution of hot pepper powder and water, sprayed onto the
ripening fruit. I understand some folks bring the mix to a boil, then cool
it down. Strain before pouring into sprayer through cheescloth or something
similar to avoid stoppages. Difficulty with this approach is that you need
to respray from time to time, especially after a rain. And, of course, you
have to rinse off the fruit before eating....but you do that anyway, don't
you?

gotta laugh about this. Before I got such good baffles for my bird
feeders, I was going nuts trying to keep the squirrels out of the bird
seed. I tried the cayenne pepper suggestion: shake the hot pepper mix
over the birdseed and the squirrels won't touch it.

well, the greedy little beggars were out there eating the peppered seed
by the handful. My son remarked: Those are squirrels that followed us
from New Orleans - they are out there saying 'you give us a litte' red
wine with this here bird seed, we be havin a feast!"