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nafex - Re: [nafex] how to tell if apples are ripe?

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  • From: sherwin <sherwindu@att.net>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] how to tell if apples are ripe?
  • Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:08:48 -0500

On 8/26/2012 5:47 PM, Ginda Fisher wrote:
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,

I cannot believe animals are smart enough to know that there is something yummy inside
the plastic bags. Even if they have learned this somehow, these 'educated' critters should
be removed from your property. You don't have to kill these critters. I trap and release them.
I cannot believe the squirrels prefer bagged apples to unbagged ones. Are you sure these are
squirrels doing the picking and not two legged critters?

The bagging technique is not foolproof. I am able to salvage fallen fruit if I can get to it the next
morning. Leaving it out any longer than that does increase the likeliness of them being penetrated.

Leaving you some apples are the way these smart squirrels know to keep you growing them.


Sherwin




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