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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Ginda's disappearing apples

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Ginda's disappearing apples
  • Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:14:54 -0500


I believe raccoons are only interested in ripe apples. If the apples were unripe the culprits are almost certainly squirrels.



Thanks for that info. Due to the late freeze, I had only four apples on my (very) young trees, but three of them disappeared while still green (I picked the fourth). They were very large apples. I thought they'd be pretty big for a squirrel to haul off, so I was wondering about raccoons.

Or how about opossums? I've seen them around here (I'm in town). I suspect that they'll take apples and other fruit, won't they?


I manage a lot of home orchards where squirrels are a huge issue and this was a moderate squirrel year where I’m located



From all I've heard, it's a bad squirrel year here, since the late freeze removed most of their natural food (such as maple seeds, in my neighborhood). I wouldn't mind shooting them for supper, but I'm in town. And I'm WAY too tenderhearted to poison the little tree rats. (And, practically speaking, there are squirrels all over town just waiting to take over any empty territories. I imagine that poisoning would be a non-stop proposition.)

Instead, I've been feeding them, and I haven't had the problems I've heard from others (chewing up tree branches, stealing tomatoes from the garden, etc.). And my fat squirrels seem to be on the alert to keep neighboring squirrels out of the yard. On the other hand, I had a hard time keeping them out of my strawberry patch (netting alone didn't work), and I didn't have much fruit of other kinds to protect. Still, I had a bigger problem with birds this year (also because of the late freeze, I believe).

But I'm thinking I'll have to try a combination of chickenwire and bird-netting next year. I don't know if that will work, but I have to believe that full squirrels are going to be less of a problem than starving ones. After all, when I'm working in the yard and feeding them peanuts, they eventually get so full that they won't even make the effort to walk over and beg for more (I see them lying in the shade, watching me work!). I'm sure that alone won't keep them out of the fruit, but they might be a little less willing to work for it. :-)

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain




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