North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

> I have a small pear tree that had a dozen or so pears this year...I
> tried bagging them with lunch bags but the squirells shredded them. Is
> there any feasible way to protect the pears from these pests???

Heavier bags.  I have the same problem with squirrels, birds and wild 
turkeys.  I use the extra-thick zipper type freezer bags when I bag apples 
and pears at thinning.  There is no damage from disease, insects or critters 
with these on my nine apple trees and one Asian pear.  In fact, I took off 
all the bags one morning last week before I started picking the apples and 
Asian pears.  Within 15 minutes, a dozen apples had bird pecks in them and I 
caught a squirrel running off with an apple.  Needless-to-say, I started 
picking immediately.
Doreen Howard