This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 01:22:27 GMT, "99windstar"
wrote:

This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?


Dig up the trees and give them to the neighbors or get some snakes to
take care of the rats.

zhan

We have snakes too but they don't help with the rat population. We want to
keep the trees.
Anyone else have any suggestions?

"BillandJeny" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 01:22:27 GMT, "99windstar"
wrote:

This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we
had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how
do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?


Dig up the trees and give them to the neighbors or get some snakes to
take care of the rats.

zhan

There exist fruit-set retardant chemicals (essentially plant hormones) that
will cause early flower drop and thus preclude fruit formation. These
chemicals are supposed to be innocuous enough, but be sure to investigate
them fully.

Short of that, I know that a pesticide called sevin (carbaryl) at the right
dosage may also cause flower abscission in the apple group, but I would put
up with the rats myself.,,,

Or get up on a ladder and wassail the darned fruits off.

Good luck

--
Mike LaMana, MS, CTE
Consulting Forester & Arborist
Heartwood Consulting Services, LLC
Toms River, NJ
www.HeartwoodConsulting.net



"99windstar" wrote in message
news:nHyOd.16454$uc.13475@trnddc04...
This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand. I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home
we didn't have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the
fruit we had rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had
rats. Our first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My
question is how do we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to
cut them down, they are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests.
Any ideas?

"99windstar" wrote in message
news:nHyOd.16454$uc.13475@trnddc04...
This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we
had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how
do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?



Interplant with rat-traps?

More seriously after two years I would not be so certain that the only
reason rats arrive is the fruit. You need more information before coming to
a conclusion. Rodents often have quite cyclic population swings that may
have nothing at all to do with your fruit. Have you talked to neighbours
about the rats? Have you looked around for other sources of rat food and/or
shelter for them?

If you are convinced the rats come for the fruit you could trim off the
immature fruit after flowering I suppose.

David

In article nHyOd.16454$uc.13475@trnddc04,
says...
This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?

Figure out where the rat source is address the problem there if
possible.

--
Lar

to email....get rid of the BUGS

99windstar wrote:
This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we
didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit
we had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats.
Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is
how do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down,
they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?

I doubt the trees are the sole source of rats. What do they live off
the other 11 months? Besides, they don't particularly like fruits. They
can manufacture most vitamins inside their body and they prefer more
caloric food (they are ,after all, squirrels without bushy tails). If
the trees are isolated from other vegetation, a metal disk three feet
up the trunk will impede access to the branches, and picking up the
dropped fruit will do the rest. If you feel like giving them a long
lasting memory, an electric fence wire wrapped around the trunks will
make them apple-shy for a long time. My electric fence has been in
disuse for 3 years, but the local mammals still remember it.

Yes I agree rats are everywhere BUT normally you don't see them on a regular
basis. When you start seeing them then there is an infestation. When the
fruit trees didn't have anymore fruit on them and the ground was cleared the
rats decided to move to our house. Now the rats are the demons everyone
makes of them! They eat and destroy the wiring and insulation under the
house. We don't store food in the garage and our trash is in containers. We
have had terminex here to find why we have such a population of rats and the
fruit trees are the only food source we have around our yard. We do have
bait stations out and are noticing a decline in activity. We just want to
avoid getting in this postion again.
These rats are huge!
We don't want to dig up the trees because replacing them with other non
fruit bearing trees would be difficult since our yard is a steep slope.


"escape" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 01:22:27 GMT, "99windstar"

opined:

This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we
had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is how
do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down, they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?


Regardless what you do, you have rats. Rats are everywhere and anywhere.
My
neighbor kills them with poison and we still have rats everywhere and
anywhere.
It doesn't matter if we have bird food out or not, there are rats. Rats
are not
the demons people want them to be.

One thing you can do is never prune your trees and make sure you never
fertilize
them. I believe you may be able to spray the blossoms with copper spray
(please
check into this thoroughly before doing it) which will kill the blossoms.

What I'm wondering is why would you want to keep the trees when you don't
want
the fruit? That is curious. You could replace these trees with others,
but
know this, you will always have rats.





Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:04:10 GMT, "99windstar"
wrote:

Yes I agree rats are everywhere BUT normally you don't see them on a regular
basis. When you start seeing them then there is an infestation. When the
fruit trees didn't have anymore fruit on them and the ground was cleared the
rats decided to move to our house. Now the rats are the demons everyone
makes of them! They eat and destroy the wiring and insulation under the
house. We don't store food in the garage and our trash is in containers. We
have had terminex here to find why we have such a population of rats and the
fruit trees are the only food source we have around our yard. We do have
bait stations out and are noticing a decline in activity. We just want to
avoid getting in this postion again.


Food is only one factor that can be a cause of the infestation.
Somewhere, probably within a 100 yards from you there is a harborage
spot. If you are in a neighborhood situation you may have someone
feeding the wildlife or just keeping their outside dog food bowl full
of dry food along with another neighbor that may have an old garage or
storage building that they may be living in. If this is the case,
unfortunately there isn't a lot that you can do other than what you
are doing. As long as there is a breeding population nearby you will
have them showing upon occasion, especially during the bounty time of
the fruit and as you discovered as they venture further from where
they came they will tend to set up residence in the less populated
area. I mainly deal with roof rats, but the most common factor I find
with them is some sort of vine...English Ivy, Jasmine,
honeysuckle...that is growing on a fence or up into the trees. But
any type of debris pile near you will suit them fine. Keeping the
limbs trimmed away from any fence and several feet from the ground and
as mentioned a collar three feet up the trunks will help, though you
will need to stay on top off all the fruit that falls to the ground.
Yes there will always be rats around, but you can also, especially
with the help of neighbors keep them in control.



Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!


Dancing dog is back!
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/smartdog.wmv

"99windstar" wrote in message
news:IzzOd.16620$uc.5312@trnddc04...
We have snakes too but they don't help with the rat population. We want to
keep the trees.
Anyone else have any suggestions?

"BillandJeny" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 01:22:27 GMT, "99windstar"
wrote:

This question is going to seem weird but I am sure you all will
understand.
I have an Apple tree and Pear Tree. Our first year in our home we didn't
have any fruit. Last year we had fruit on both. Along with the fruit we
had
rats! We diligently picked up the dropped fruit but still had rats. Our
first year when there was no fruit there were no rats. My question is
how
do
we stop the trees from bearing fruit? We don't want to cut them down,
they
are nice trees but the fruit invite unwelcomed guests. Any ideas?


Dig up the trees and give them to the neighbors or get some snakes to
take care of the rats.

zhan

rat traps?

escape wrote in
news
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:04:10 GMT, "99windstar"
opined:

Yes I agree rats are everywhere BUT normally you don't see
them on a regular basis.

I see rats almost daily in my gardens. They are giant
sized, fat as cats. Cute as any other creature I've seen.

really? i don't have rats...not i don't see rats, i don't
have any. if i did, the barn cats would gift me with them.

When you start seeing them then there is an infestation.

There's already an infestation whether or not you see them.
For every person, there are about 500 or more rats...on
the planet. NYC has over a billion rats. In my yard I
count about 12 adults.

where do you live? i have a farm, with livestock, with the
attendant grain storage, but no rats. i have lots of mice,
voles, moles & woodchucks, red & grey squirrels, chipmunks,
but no rats.
the previous owner had a rat problem, but he used wooden
grain bins. i keep the barn tidy & store grain in metal trash
cans with bungeed lids. the chicken feeders hang from the
rafters, so no grain at floor level. i also have two chubby
little barn cats who are excellent vermin hunters.

When the
fruit trees didn't have anymore fruit on them and the
ground was cleared the rats decided to move to our house.

Getting rid of the fruit trees won't prevent this. Good
hygiene, proper pruning of branches near the roof, closing
off any possible entrances with wire or mesh, putting some
tanglefoot where they enter, etc. will help.

this is true. i don't think the trees caused the rat
population explosion. how far away are the neighbors & how
clean do they keep thier yard/house?
since the rats have moved in, getting rid of the trees won't
help. you need to find what they're eating in your house &
clean that up. rats don't stay if there's no food source...
but if your neighbors have a food source, it's possible they
will live in your house & go next door to eat.

Now the rats are the demons everyone
makes of them! They eat and destroy the wiring and
insulation under the house. We don't store food in the
garage and our trash is in containers. We have had terminex
here to find why we have such a population of rats and the
fruit trees are the only food source we have around our
yard. We do have bait stations out and are noticing a
decline in activity. We just want to avoid getting in this
postion again. These rats are huge!
We don't want to dig up the trees because replacing them
with other non fruit bearing trees would be difficult since
our yard is a steep slope.

are your garbage cans metal? are the covers tightly fastened,
as in bungeed closed? where is thier water source?
if your house has a crawl space, you need to screen it off.
make sure you have no leaking pipes to supply water. keep all
your dry goods (flour, pasta, grains, etc) in metal or plastic
containers. rats are lazy. they won't live somewhere where
food & water aren't easily available.
oh, and consider getting a cat, not any cat though. you need
a cat that comes from a barn cat background. while most cats
will hunt from instinct, house cats tend to not be as good at
ratting as cats that haven't had the instint bred down. spayed
female cats are better hunters than males typically, although
my male barncat is pretty good. his sister is still better at
actually killing things. Rudh tends to 'play' with his prey &
they escape more often.
i note you said you'd replace the apple & pear with other
fruit if you *did* cut them down anyway, so i see you really
don't think they're the source of the problem. if you really
thought the fruit was a problem, why would you just plant more
fruit?
oh, & since you only have one apple & one pear, *someone*
within a mile of you must have more fruit trees to pollinate
yours (or the pear, at least, wouldn't be fruiting. they
aren't self-pollinating, & apples fruit better if cross
pollinated), so that may also be the source of the rats.
lee