Protecting your fruit from squirrel's and other critters

Caught one of the two ground hogs. One down , one more to go :smile:

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I guess I’m going to have to at least individually fence all of my trees. I fenced my fig that’s producing and I’ve been lucky enough the varmints haven’t eaten them. I lost all my mulberry leaves to deer so I fenced them and it appears to have worked. But now I had a beautiful looking new pecan with a ton of vegetation on it only 4 months in the ground and I get here today and it looks like this

DAMN. Every leaf but one! Time to fence!

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Ouch.

If it survives I think you should choose one of those co-dominant leaders and remove the other, using a stake to straighten the remaining one.

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I am happy to say My Pecan that the deer so loved has made a Complete recovery. Looks like nothing ever happened to it. Actually somewhat amazing to me. Although both of my Mulberry trees recovered just fine as well. Since i fenced them they actually look better than before the deer ate all the leaves…Hmmmmmmmmmm…

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Not sure what type of possums and raccoons you have there but where I am they are out all night long. You see them running across the roadways , streets, in my yard all night long. You can even tell at night they have been recently hit when their eyes still have the retinal refection along the roads.

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Ours are out all night. It’s legal hunting here at night. I hunt…

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Legal to hunt coons and possums at night here too. Also legal to run them with hounds (coons mainly) and to use a spotlight to illuminate them at the point of kill.

I’ve had decent luck controlling their numbers simply by shooting them at dusk when no spotlight is needed. A good scope gives you light gathering ability.

Fortunately for me, possums are pretty rare this far north.

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The tube trap discussed earlier costs $59 on amazon! Kinda pricey. So I’m looking at cheaper alternatives. Any thoughts on this Duke body trap? It has good reviews. Anybody here uses it? It also comes in a bigger size.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003DQW09M/ref=pd_aw_sim_86_of_27?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R829B9RPMKDKHQNZDV2G

Do a Google search “squirrel tube trap” and you’ll find them being sold for much less. Some don’t come with a safety latch and for me that is a problem. Also the quality varies.

Agreed on the Dusk shooting. seems that is when they start out for the night. I have a TON of possums. I am dead due west of Jacksonville. In the woods though. A lot of armadillo and possum here . I do shoot them after dark too…they just wander by and bye-bye they go…

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Funny thing…I didn’t start shooting them because of my fruit trees. My area has a very nice Quail, Turkey and Dove population and when i bought the property it was extremely overgrown and never cared for so i noticed a badly diminished population of those birds there. My neighbor tipped me that possums, armadillos and raccoons eat all the eggs that get laid on the ground and those very birds lay all of their eggs on the ground. So i started preventative measures about 4 years ago and now I have a very nice ,healthy population of Quail, Dove and Turkey. I think that’s better than just a fair trade…IMO

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I’ve learned from experience that one should examine the ease with which the trap is set. Some traps are a bear to set, esp to get a hair trigger. The larger the animal the harder it is to set. I can do mice and vole traps, but don’t have the strength for much larger than that. That may not be an issue for you.

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I have seen people gas them(with natural gas or just Co2 for safety) in a trash bag with the trap, and then drown them. It is an extra step but they die in their sleep. Or use a lethal trap, make the whole thing fast.

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Regarding Tube Traps:

I bought one of the cheaper “copy cat” brands and returned it due to poor quality and no safety latch. The manufacturer WCS, Wildlife Control Supplies, makes a good product. The cheaper WCS model will rust but it can be painted or the more expensive stainless steal model is available. I recommend WCS but does anyone know of a better or less expensive quality product? I wonder if the electric models work?

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Some plants like Daffodils & Crown Imperials are supposed to repel rodents… Not sure how well they actually work in various applications, but can’t hurt to try? Worst case, they have little effect…but you still at least have a much prettier garden! :sunglasses:

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One year I planted 100 daffodil bulbs. 80% were eaten by some kinds of rodents. I doubt if they would deter squirrels.

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Or chimpmunks

As Jerry Lehman would say, “You can have squirrels or nuts, but you can’t have both.” I would take it a step further and add fruit to that. Also, with the amount of cotton rats I’ve caught it’s obvious why I hardly see any undisturbed pecans. I plan to stay 3 steps ahead in the coming years.

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IMHO ‘deterring’ a determined rodent is an exercise in futility, and I wouldn’t waste time or resources on such.
They continue to be a problem for you (and your neighbor if you are relying on those useless whirlygigs). Resources put towards elimination serve you and mankind better.

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I hear that the Rugged Ranch Products SQRTO Squirrelinator Trap works well. I’ve seen video that suggest they do the trick.