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  • From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pear Thief
  • Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:56:31 -0400

I have one more cure for squirrel predation. After squirrels cleaned out all the nuts from my filbert bushes, I got to thinking how you never see squirrels in high grass -- I mean really high, as in an unmown hayfield. I don't thing they can run fast in high grass. So, except for right around each filbert bush, I let the field vegetation grow unmown. No squirrel damage. I do have two dogs and it is possible that squirrels might be more bold in high grass in the absence of potential predators.

This technique is not applicable everywhere (a small yard, e.g.) but where it can be done, I believe it would be effective.
Lee Reich, PhD

Books by Lee Reich:
A Northeast Gardener's Year
The Pruning Book
Weedless Gardening
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Landscaping with Fruit






On Aug 26, 2010, at 7:39 AM, Douglas Woodard wrote:

Caren, some years ago I lived in a house which had a not completely enclosed back porch with a little space under the eaves big enough for a squirrel to get through. The windows were screened. One year I had a 10 pound bag of good sized Granny Smith apples out there in the late fall. A kitchen window gave a view of the inside of the porch. Early one morning I saw a grey squirrel struggling up the screen carrying an apple. This was amusing enough so that I let him take the lot, day by day.

Years before that I lived in another house with a large tree close by in the back yard. One summer evening I heard two grey squirrels chattering on a large branch in the tree, a foot or more in diameter, horizontal, about 10 feet off the ground. Something fell from the branch to the ground under where the squirrels had been. I went over and looked. It was half an ear of cooked sweet corn.

So don't underestimate the ability of squirrels to carry stuff.

A slippery metal shield around the trunk, too high for the squirrels to jump over (a metre?) may work. If they can jump into your pear tree from another tree which you can't shield, you may be fresh out of luck.

In that case your alternatives may be

1. plant enough for both you and the squirrels.

2. use poison or traps.

3. develop a taste for squirrel stew/soup.

I read a while back about some stores in England which have begun to stock grey squirrel meat.

I wonder whether ferrets climb trees?

Pine martens might work, but I understand that the ones in North America are fairly demanding about range size, also they might be difficult to acquire or attract.

If the squirrels have to knock the fruits to the ground and then pick them up, which I think is likely, then encouraging dogs or outdoor cats to hang around the trees in season may help.

Maybe as your pear tree grows bigger there will be too much fruit for the squirrels to eat. Maybe.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



Caren Kirk wrote:
Out of interest, could anyone suggest what would be stealing small pears off my Flemish Beaty in July before they've fully grown and ripened? It's a small, young tree that I planyed last year that set about 8-10 small fruit. However something came and took them at the beginning of July. There were absolutely no signs of damage to the tree and absolutely no trace of the pears.
Animalwise we have quite a family of squirrels in the area but it seems to me that they would be too big for a squirrel to carry off. We have the odd raccoon, but the tree is too spindly to hold that kind of weight without branch damage. My kids show no interest in my fruit until it's on a plate in front of them, and they know better. As do the neighbours.
Any ideas so I can work out a strategy to protect them for next year?
Caren Kirk
St. Jerome, QC
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