North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

>  and having with an animal psychic talk to the squirrels


That was pretty funny. I could just imagine!  But actually, I talk to 
the squirrels, too. But they don't talk back when I do it. :-D

Seriously, did you get that April freeze like we did? There's just been 
very little natural food for the squirrels and birds this year. I've 
heard that squirrels are doing a lot more damage than usual to trees and 
vegetable gardens (there's hardly any fruit here for them to bother this 
year). And I just talked to someone who had his entire blueberry crop 
wiped out by robins - the first time that's ever happened. The same 
thing happened to me with my black raspberries. I've never had a big 
problem with robins before this, but I didn't get a single ripe berry 
this year.

Anyway, I've been feeding the squirrels peanuts when I work in the yard. 
They've been eating so many that I'm surprised they can still climb 
trees. I'll admit that it didn't keep them out of my strawberry patch, 
but they haven't chewed up my young fruit trees and they haven't 
bothered my tomatoes, like I hear from other people around here. They 
haven't even tried to get at my grapes (unlike the cardinals, which have 
really been working at trying to get through the chickenwire and bird 
netting), but maybe they don't like grapes?

Well, I'm in town, so I can't get the ingredients for squirrel stew. And 
the little tree rats can sure be infuriating at times. Once I get fruit 
on the trees, I doubt if peanuts will keep them happy. But I do think 
it's lessened the problem a little bit. My big maple tree didn't have a 
single seedpod this year, so I can see why they were especially hungry. 
But maybe you didn't get that freeze as badly as we did?

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. 
And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science 
has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being 
true. - Carl Sagan