North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

I live on 1/3 of an acre in the burbs, so killing squirrels is difficult. I 
bagged for a couple of years, but this spring it became clear that the bags 
are a big flag to the wildlife that something yummy is inside. 

Bags did help for a year or two,  but then the squirrels started chewing 
through the bags, and later they learned to removed them. This year I only 
bagged a handful of apples, and they were the only ones eaten early in the  
season.

Curiously, not only did the squirrels leave me some apples, but those apples 
are completely clean, despite no treatment except some spinosad very early in 
the season for winter moths.
-- 
Ginda

Typed with Swype. Who knows what I intended to say?

sherwin <sherwindu@att.net> wrote:

On 8/26/2012 4:43 PM, Ginda Fisher wrote:
> I have a Jonathan apple tree with about 2 dozen large apples hanging
from it. This is a very unusual occurrence, as squirrels have removed
all the fruit by mid-August in every recent year.
>
> How can I tell when to pick them? Probably I should pick some now,
even if they aren't fully ripe, just to get some apples. You never know
what critter will take an interest in the tree tomorrow, after all.
>
> Thanks,
> Ginda
> eastern MA, zone 6
>
     Ginda,

     No guarantees, but putting ziplock bags around the apples may slow 
down or stop the critters.  It
     works somewhat, for me.  If I have some fruits of special value, I 
will wind some additional cheap
     bird netting around them.

      If you are having such big squirrel problems, I would go for an 
elimination program.  Active trapping
      is the key here.  This season, I have gone from two removals per 
day down to one every two or three
      days.  Yes, some others will move back in, but you can keep the 
numbers down

                                            Sherwin Dubren
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