Since im wiped out for the season im spitballing for next year. Last year i did a wide strip of tanglefoot on saran wrap to prevent ants from tending aphids. The squirrels avoided the trees. It also was not as hot and drought plagued. So im wondering if tanglefoot played any role. Squirrelinator will also be playing a role next year.
They say you can spray paint round rocks bright red and hand them in your trees, birds will Peck them, jar their faces off, and never bother that tree again. I don’t know if it will work but that’s what people say.
2 Likes
The best solution I’ve ever had was fence in the area and keep a couple dogs in that area. Works against all critters. My biggest issue is squirrels. I need to invite someone in to hunt them I guess. I mean we have a BUNCH of squirrels. Counted 8 at the bird feeder the other day, and those are just the ones brave enough to cross the open areas. Hawks have been hanging out a lot, but they are not making a dent. Folks that visit say you sure have a lot of squirrels. My orchard is not near the house, but our lane passes thru it. They sure like pears, but we also have walnut, hickory, and paw paw trees in abundance..
1 Like
Does anyone have a squirrelinator who likes it?
Things are like a revolving door. They went Lodi apples, plums, now my peaches. Seems I’m always a day late. They got all but one Red haven from one tree last night.
I’ve caught two racoons. I electrified my cages on my Reliance peaches and they quit eating those.
I put up an electric mesh fence around 3 peaches and a Toka plum that is loaded. 2 that are 4x60’. I got it off Amazon. I’ll see what it does and will post a Pic.
I was making some adjustments to it and it bit me pretty good. So I’m optimistic.
1 Like
Electric mesh fence is probably the answer if raccoons are your main problem. I lost most of my plums to them two years running before putting one up. The solar-powered ones work well enough and you can move them around as different trees ripen. For squirrels specifically though, nothing short of full netting seems to stop them. They just don’t care about getting zapped.
2 Likes
Electric is great, but something has to be grounded. Deer, raccoons, opossum and foxes all are usually grounded when they touch the electric netting.
Squirrels on the other hand, I see in my mind, running along the ground and jumping on the net never being grounded. The tree may act as a ground, but not always a good one.
I see the results of my netting this morning.
I used electric 1” tape for deer before and it works good once they learn what it does. I’d run a row of hot tape, 1’ off of the ground, a ground wire 1’ up, then another 1” hot tape 1’ higher. That way the always have a good ground near by for maximum effect. Won’t be effective on squirrels.
3 Likes
I have found squirrels to be my most difficult challenge in home orcharding. Reading this forum for the last few years I don’t think I’m alone. There’s just no great solution for the average suburban yard.
Deer - most destructive but I have now controlled with a fence, though at considerable cost
birds - can be netted out, though takes some practice to figure out how to scaffold and secure the net
Raccoon- have managed with a solar electric charger and 18” netted fence around ripening trees. Wasn’t cheap but so far effective and simple to implement
but the squirrels are relentless. They will chew through nets, hop over/through the electric net, and jump from nearby trees or the deer fence. They’ve stopped going for bait in the various traps and just take a few unripe peaches and apples a day
5 Likes
I’m too far away to come for a hunting trip.
There are tons of good people, especially father’s who want to take their boys hunting who hunt squirrels and you probably can post on a forum and get a lot of people who want to come hunt squirrels, to save your trees, I’d probably pick the hunters who use .22’s and 17 caliber or even air rifles, shotguns spread a lot of lead and I’m not sure how that ultimately effects trees and fruits, but they don’t travel far, so if you have suburban areas close by, that might be better.
There are lots of hunting forums and you might be able to find people there.
Also even in suburban areas people are always looking for places to bowhunt from deer, and as long as you tell them not to put their treestands in your fruit trees or trim the fruit trees so that he has a lane to shoot his arrow, you shouldn’t have any problems and might remove a lot of your pressure.
Ramik Green in squirrel feeder is the nuclear option. They will hoard these and is a gift that will keep giving.
22 caliber pellet rifles work well. I use hollow point pellets.
The cylinder traps work well if high population situations. I like this one because it kills the squirrel immediately.
I don’t understand why the hawks won’t thin them out. I’ve seen hawks nearly kill themselves chasing blue jays in dense canopy. Squirrels are out there in the open all the time. Seems like they would be an easy target.
The Hawks don’t eat my squirrels as they are too busy trying to eat my Purple Martin fledgling.
We have mainly fox squirrels. I think they are hard to handle for red tail hawks.
My daughter had a red shoulder hawk come in to their housing development, and completely clean out her Grey squirrel population. The squirrels were nesting in their house eves.
Im going to offer my Grandsons a bounty for any squirrels harvested around the orchard. It will be good practice for them.
We have a lot of black walnuts around our recreation pinic area. They are welcome there.
1 Like
I took down the walnut tree close to our house about 6 years ago (before I started seriously planting an orchard). The squirls used to stash walnuts in the upper storage areas in all my outbuildings. I put rat poison mixed with peanut butter up in attics where they stashed the walnuts. That pretty much took care of my local squirls on my property. I now have three dogs that love chasing down rodents. The squirls haven’t returned, and I can only recall seeing a squirl or two since the dogs started patrolling the property.
I put up this electric netting around some Reliance peaches and a Toka plum. So far it has worked but the peaches have a ways to go to ripen, but they were eating them prior to get pits.
I electrified the basket around 2 peaches and one Toka plum. They haven’t done anything to the peaches.
One Toka plum has an electrified basket outside the netting and the other is inside the netting. The one inside the netting has lots if plums that are ripe and I picked a bunch today. The one with just the basket is having its ripe plums picked off each day. Birds or squirrels. It would be easy for the squirrels to jump in on the one tree outside the netting.
The coons and opossum haven’t been around since I caught a few. They may have corn ripening in the fields that they are eating.
The netting is having an effect but it’s a lot of maintenance. Some thing is always shorting it out.
Once I electrified the baskets on the peaches nothing has been climbing up any of the trees with baskets.
Birds are pecking my apples pretty good. Any solutions out there for them. I was going to try and maybe hang ribbons but I figure that will only work for a day or two. They have gotten 20 to 30 honeycrisp and they won’t be ripe until September. Sapsuckers seem to be a problem for me.
Squirrels are a challenge to control when they want something as others have stated.