Peaches and Squirrels
 

I don't really dislike squirrels so I sort of put up with them but last
year our two dwarf Peach trees had a motherload of fruit. But it all
got done in by the squirrels.
The question is can I get a net to go over the trees to keep the hungry
things out?
Would I be better off overfeeding them on trays of sunflower seeds?
Or maybe a couple of fake Owl's in /near the trees?
--
Yours,
Tom

In article , Tom Bates
wrote:

I don't really dislike squirrels so I sort of put up with them but last
year our two dwarf Peach trees had a motherload of fruit. But it all
got done in by the squirrels.
The question is can I get a net to go over the trees to keep the hungry
things out?
Would I be better off overfeeding them on trays of sunflower seeds?
Or maybe a couple of fake Owl's in /near the trees?

Nets work fine for birds but squirrels would probably figure out how to
get in one, though it's worth a try, & feeding them fatty seeds MIGHT
cause them to lose interest in large fruits. Here's a list of things to do
keep squirrels from harvesting fruits before you can:
http://www.paghat.com/squirrelcontrol.html

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

netting for sure. but traps followed with a pellet gun to their head is better. you
can try spreading dried blood fert around it keeps mine from digging in the flower
beds. I am thinking about wire mesh cages for my dwarf peach and apricot trees. I
want that fruit. Ingrid

Tom Bates wrote:

I don't really dislike squirrels so I sort of put up with them but last
year our two dwarf Peach trees had a motherload of fruit. But it all
got done in by the squirrels.
The question is can I get a net to go over the trees to keep the hungry
things out?
Would I be better off overfeeding them on trays of sunflower seeds?
Or maybe a couple of fake Owl's in /near the trees?



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I have done a lot of research on this problem as I have two dwarf peach
trees and I WANT that fruit, too..

There are hundreds of people on the net complaining about the squirrel
problems with fruit trees. Here is what I have learned:

1. You can shoot two hundred squirrels a day and the one you miss will
strip your tree.

2. You can leave barrels of corn out and the squirrels will still want
to "see about those peaches".

3. Pepper, wolf urine, mothballs all work for a few minutes.

4. There are people out there who have chopped down their fruit trees
because it they can't have any, the d&$%m squirrels won't get any either.

5. Everyone suffers from the squirrels biting into and then pitching
small, green, unripe peaches - one after another until the tree is bare.
Everybody is very angry at this stupidity of the bandits.

6. Bird netting is NOT effective for squirrels. They either eat through
the nylon mesh or get through the holes (where the square piece of
netting tries to cover a basically round tree top. Clothes pins to hold
the edges don't work.) Plus as the tree grows, it grows THROUGH the net,
making the net the very devil to get off.

7. Baffles and metal bands around the tree base will not work on dwarf
trees.

8. There are a few very smug, self-satisfied people who say "plant one
for the squirrels and one for yourself. Learn to share". The squirrels
will NOT understand which is THEIR tree but will strip all you have.
What I think of these people is not worth printing.

9. Last but not least, some smug, self-satisfied people claim they
actually DO get plenty of fruit. I cannot comment.

I have two dwarf peach trees about 4 years old that are fully stripped
every year and I am thinking about a cage for the trees. An "outdoor
sunning cage for an iguana" looks like it might be re-designed as a
"peach tree cage".

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/9008/pvccage.html with PVC
http://www.iguana-news.com/cage.html with wood

you need to go down at least 12" (with a little L bend) to prevent
digging under plus I think this will stabilize it. This may not work but
before you say how this can't be done, I'll leave you with a expression
my boss likes:

"Do something even if it's wrong - lot of people out there doing nothing
really well."

If you have any better ideas, I would LOVE to hear them.

We had a massive hail storm about two/three weeks ago that tore over
half of my peaches off the trees.


wrote:
netting for sure. but traps followed with a pellet gun to their head is better. you
can try spreading dried blood fert around it keeps mine from digging in the flower
beds. I am thinking about wire mesh cages for my dwarf peach and apricot trees. I
want that fruit. Ingrid

OK - fair enough.

Question: do you think the squirrels noted, in their little squirrel
brains: "Sterling has such a ****y attitude. We'll destroy ALL her
peaches, but that 'escape' is such a sweety that we'll go hungry rather
than taking all his/her fruit!" ?? And somehow that went out on the
squirrel telegraph?

Just curious...

Also, is yours a full size tree or a dwarf? A full size tree would
produce a lot more peaches.

And you are saying you use no deterrents?

escape wrote:
I think perhaps your ****y attitude has more to do with why your trees are
stripped yearly and my one tree produced 15 bushels of fruit last year, not
counting the tons the squirrels ate, what they took a bit of and threw on the
floor and what fell off in a self-aborted situation.




On Thu, 05 May 2005 23:00:16 -0400, Sterling opined:


I have done a lot of research on this problem as I have two dwarf peach
trees and I WANT that fruit, too..

There are hundreds of people on the net complaining about the squirrel
problems with fruit trees. Here is what I have learned:

1. You can shoot two hundred squirrels a day and the one you miss will
strip your tree.

2. You can leave barrels of corn out and the squirrels will still want
to "see about those peaches".

3. Pepper, wolf urine, mothballs all work for a few minutes.

4. There are people out there who have chopped down their fruit trees
because it they can't have any, the d&$%m squirrels won't get any either.

5. Everyone suffers from the squirrels biting into and then pitching
small, green, unripe peaches - one after another until the tree is bare.
Everybody is very angry at this stupidity of the bandits.

6. Bird netting is NOT effective for squirrels. They either eat through
the nylon mesh or get through the holes (where the square piece of
netting tries to cover a basically round tree top. Clothes pins to hold
the edges don't work.) Plus as the tree grows, it grows THROUGH the net,
making the net the very devil to get off.

7. Baffles and metal bands around the tree base will not work on dwarf
trees.

8. There are a few very smug, self-satisfied people who say "plant one
for the squirrels and one for yourself. Learn to share". The squirrels
will NOT understand which is THEIR tree but will strip all you have.
What I think of these people is not worth printing.

9. Last but not least, some smug, self-satisfied people claim they
actually DO get plenty of fruit. I cannot comment.

I have two dwarf peach trees about 4 years old that are fully stripped
every year and I am thinking about a cage for the trees. An "outdoor
sunning cage for an iguana" looks like it might be re-designed as a
"peach tree cage".

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/9008/pvccage.html with PVC
http://www.iguana-news.com/cage.html with wood

you need to go down at least 12" (with a little L bend) to prevent
digging under plus I think this will stabilize it. This may not work but
before you say how this can't be done, I'll leave you with a expression
my boss likes:

"Do something even if it's wrong - lot of people out there doing nothing
really well."

If you have any better ideas, I would LOVE to hear them.

We had a massive hail storm about two/three weeks ago that tore over
half of my peaches off the trees.


wrote:

netting for sure. but traps followed with a pellet gun to their head is better. you
can try spreading dried blood fert around it keeps mine from digging in the flower
beds. I am thinking about wire mesh cages for my dwarf peach and apricot trees. I
want that fruit. Ingrid







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http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

My name is not 'escape' and you know it.

I do not know that - you are coming into giganews with the sender name
'escape'. That is the information my server shows.

As for the rest - all I can say is 'good for you'. Your kind attitude
certainly reflects a strong spiritual light. We could all learn from it.

Sterling wrote:
My name is not 'escape' and you know it.

I do not know that - you are coming into giganews with the sender
name 'escape'. That is the information my server shows.

As for the rest - all I can say is 'good for you'. Your kind
attitude certainly reflects a strong spiritual light. We could all
learn from it.

Can't you read? "escape" signs her posts with "Victoria". I don't know
why she has "escape" as her from name. Maybe she doesn't know how to
change it.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5