For some members here, shaking flowers during bloom time would get thrips to fall off.
Look like nectarines are thrips’ favorite target. Many people who grown nectarines have a thrip issue. I have had scarred nectarines ripened and edible. These days, I thinned badly damage fruitlets out first.
Thrips don’t stay just in the west any more.
My first-rate enemy. Very destructive.
@SMC_zone6 my heart sank when I looked out the window a moment ago and saw it.
Tippy, you got a ground hog
Yes, a groundhog. I think they are very destructive and eat a lot of plants I grow in a large quantity.
I have gotten rid of them but new ones have shown up every year. They are skittish and hard to catch. Sometimes, it took me months before I caught them.
I know, I had a ground hole right next to my garden. For years we couldn’t make it move. We put water hose into the hole trying to flood it out. We tried to smoke it out. We tried to dump soil into the hole to bury it…Hubby was in military, a veteran, so he can shoot very well. He tried to shoot it. At the end, we moved out of the areas.
That ground hog was fed so well by me putting a garden there, corns, winter squashes, beans , nutritious food all season long…it had many babies
Around here, some people called groundhogs woodchucks. We used to have a woodchuck that was so well-fed by my garden, we called it Fat Chuck. It was huge.
We probably won’t move anytime soon. Thus, we will have to deal with these groundhogs. I sure hope we will win.
I had them in Maine. They also got into my well! They were the worst. Fast, easily spooked, and eat everything. Ugh. there is much to be said for a terrace.
And they can climb trees, too. People often don’t know this. They are more agile than people think.
They whistle too!
we got lots of them and porcupine also. the pocis love fruit tree bark.
How do you trap groundhogs (if you trap them)
i read somewhere to use cantaloupe in a medium have a heart trap. here they get shot and thrown in the compost pile. 
i generally live and let live until i start to see damage.
I have heard that groundhogs are also called whistling pigs but I have not heard the noise they make.
@steveb4
When I get very upset by them, I wish I had a gun.
Whistle pigs. Yes that is their other name, besides HORRIBLE! Xxoo C
@mrsg47
I am sure you don’t miss our wild life or fruit trees’ diseases in the east coast. I am about to give up on plums.
It is a losing battle for black knot, esp. on mirabelles.
First tree fruit (strawberries do not count) of the season.
Juliet tart cherries. Even with so many drooped early on, we have so many cherries. 11 lbs today and many more on the bush.
We picked with stems on… they last longer than stemless.
It is so sad as you had the best tasting mirabelles!!! No I do not miss it. But during the summer I must water every other day. Its worth it!
Tippy, lot of cherries! What are you going to do with so many cherries?
Honestly, I don’t know. Almost all my friends and neighbors don’t like sour cherries. We have made jam and other desserts but have not been able to use them up easily. We have frozen quite a bit. Some have been in the freezer for 2 years now.
I wonder of we can dry them. Have you or anyone try drying sour cherries? How does it work out?
They also make a delicious juice. Jam and more jam. Make it now before it gets to hot outside! But you probably have air conditioning!!!
