Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] squirrels, bags - - shocking them does work

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Nathan Torgerson <nathantorgerson@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] squirrels, bags - - shocking them does work
  • Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 11:08:14 -0700 (PDT)

The organza bags I am using to bag some of my plums have draw strings on them. After tightening the strings, I take the leng strings that are left and tie it around the branch.  My hope is that the squirrels will be disappointed if they can't get the bag off of the tree and stop wrecking more of them.  I won't know for a few weeks if it works or not.
 
One thing I have done to squirrels is shock them.  On one of my bird feeders, I attached a metal plate to the feeding area and had another metal plate about 3 inches away from it (This was slot feeder that was attached to my deck railing.)  I then attached an electric fence to the two plates.  The space between the metal plates was large enough so the birds could eat, but the squirrels were big enough that their feet were on one plate when their snout was touching the other.  I have about 20 minutes of video showing them getting shocked, at times springing up several inches and once flying off of the deck rail.   After a few attempts , it kept them at bay because it obviously didn't feel very good.
 
One of the problems was that the base of my feeder was wood, so that when it got wet, the birds could get a little zing too.
 
You might be able to do something like that on a tree.  If not, I would do it just for entertainment somewhere else!
 
Nate

Stephen Sadler <Docshiva@Docshiva.org> wrote:
This year I had planned on trying a carrot-and-stick approach: one of the
spray-on hot/bitter tasting organic squirrel repellants, and a squirrel
feeder. This sort of approach has worked for me before in dealing with
other large pests.

I may not need to put the plan into action - someone, probably next door,
poisoned the rodents. I've said a little prayer for them, that they go on
to a better place, and never ever come back....

Stephen Sadler
USDA 9, AHS heat zone 8,
Sacramento CA - Mediterranean climate

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
rmelrose@danvilleVT.net
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 7:12 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Cc: rmelrose@DanvilleVT.net
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bagging, squirrels and plums

Mark, thanks for the pointer to the gardenweb discussion. It sounds as
though this is not going to fool the squirrels -- for whom I have some
respect as an enemy -- but I will give it a try in the hope that the local
squirrels are dim. In fact it took them a few years to learn that plums are
edible (they learnt on a Santa Rosa I used to have before it died of some
sort of aggressive canker) but once they learnt, the knowledge seems to have
passed to subsequent generations.

Unfortunately the wrapping, and spraying (thanks Bruce), suggestions are
impractical here. The squirrels have access higher in the tree from all
sides -- the houses are close together, there is a phone pole and a crab
apple. So there is no chance of keeping them out of the tree.

As I said, I am trying some baggies -- but I suspect the plums will
split. In Vermont where I have apples growing the bags work very well
against the various bugs, but when I tried them on pears (these were
Summer Crisp, Luscious and Golden Spice) they split badly. Since the pears
don't suffer much from bug attack I have given up on that and just do a
couple of hundred apples.

Richard



_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page