North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>]

Keith,

A friend of mine several miles south of Winston-Salem lives 30 yards from a creek and has several pawpaw trees that love the growing conditions there.  But once the fruit starts to fall he finds a few well-eaten ones down at the edge of the creek every morning - almost certainly raccoons - they strip the skin off and leave a pile of seeds.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Jwlehman@aol.com
Sent: Oct 8, 2009 11:12 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pawpaws and wildlife

In a message dated 10/7/2009 3:25:52 PM Central Daylight Time, goatdoc@ctitech.com writes:

This year the whole fallen pawpaws are gone.Do deer
eat the whole pawpaws or do squirrels or racoons carry them off?

Hi Keith,

It is my observation that deer do not eat pawpaws. I've seen many pawpaws with teeth marks that look like deer. They seem to bite into them but reject them as soon as they taste the skin. They don't eat the leaves, branches or new growth either.

What is carrying them off? I don't know, but feel sure it isn't deer.

Jerry