On 27 Sep 2004 07:40:08 -0700, (simy1) wrote:

escapee wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 01:07:32 GMT, "MPost" opined:

I have a peach tree. I harvested at least 10 bushels of peaches this year, and
that did not count the peaches with one bite out of it from the squirrels. If
you pear tree is producing so few fruits that a squirrel can compete with you,
maybe it's an idea to find out how to increase yields. There is no
compassionate way to keep wildlife out of the wild.



It is not so simple. My yard supports between two and three dozens
squirrels, due to the presence of about twenty hickories, several
oaks, and several walnuts. During the warm season they eat in
succession elm, ash, and maple seeds. They never touched the
raspberries, for example, though they have always taken most of the
mulberries from a weeping specimen in the frontyard.

But then all ash trees died within a year, due to the borer, and
suddenly they have a hole in their crop cycle. They have hammered the
raspberries and even tried a few tomatoes.

You really really need some hawks. I've just been googling squirrel
predators (the building I live in backs onto an urban conservation
area, and boy, oh boy, do we have squirrels! They scale the building
to get at my balcony tomatoes) and after checking out predators at
http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Wildl...ysquirrel.html,
it becomes pretty obvious why squirrels do so well in cities: There
isn't enough continuous habitat to support hawks! So, I guess the
longterm wildlife management question is, now to get more hawks to
live in your neighbourhood?

Shirley Hicks,
Toronto, Ontairo
TB

"A liberal is a conservative who's been through treatment."
- Garrison Keillor