North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

> Does anybody have any advice about how to keep squirrels out of apple 
> trees?


I've had great luck with a low-powered electric wire (like a cattle 
fence, but for pets or other short-haired animals). Last year, I put one 
on the chainlink fence around my backyard, and at first I didn't think 
it did anything at all. The squirrels climbed up the fence without even 
noticing it. But they must have been zapped occasionally, because after 
awhile, they developed a strong aversion to climbing the fence. And this 
year, despite apples, peaches, plums, strawberries, and sweet corn in 
the backyard, I didn't have a single squirrel in there. (They do try to 
dig under the fence sometimes, but that's easy enough to prevent.)

I've got a few fruit trees - including one dwarf apple - outside the 
fence, too. So this year, I put a ring of chickenwire (12 inches tall) 
around them, and a couple of strands of the electric wire on top of that 
(this kept the electric wire out of the grass, which is necessary). 
Squirrels did steal a few green apples, but not many. Well, as I noted, 
it takes them awhile to learn where the electric wires are, so I expect 
it to work even better next year.

Note that I regularly feed the squirrels peanuts in the front yard, so 
they're not all that hungry. I figured if they were starving, they'd 
never stay away from the fruit. And I'm in town, where I can't shoot or 
trap them (and even if I did, more would move into the yard almost 
immediately - which is exactly what happens when "my" squirrels get run 
over).

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
A stimulus is the right thing. You hope it doesn't get watered down in 
many ways. Our first stimulus bill ... was sort of like taking a half a 
tablet of Viagra and then having also a bunch of candy mixed in, you 
know, everybody was putting in things for their own constituencies. It 
doesn't really have quite the wallop that might have been anticipated 
there. - Warren Buffett