@zendog It is crappy but that is part of the game. Me and my daughter took count the other day to see what we had left. 9 honeycrisp, 2 airlie, and 10 winesap. This morning 0 honey, 2 airlie, and 10 winesap. Not going to be a great year. Makes me wonder if it was squirrels since it happened overnight and 9 is a lot for one night. Cant see anything on my camera but the corpses look like squirrel nibblings.
@alan Baffles do work where they can be applied. Like you said though, f%ckers can jump. I’ll have to find something else.
Yes, my own orchard has branching too low, but I’m in the process of changing that. I’m 72 and would like to leave my Elmer Fudd identity by the time I’m 80. I’m really sick of killing them since I don’t eat them.
In my nursery I train most of my trees with scaffolds that start high enough to baffle the tree. The only customers I have with no squirrel issues have dogs that control the grounds. In that case, you still need to have enough property to have trees where the squirrels have to approach them from the ground.
Training the peach trees in my nursery requires repetitive summer pruning because shoots grow straight up from close to horizontal scaffolds.
The 3 peach trees that were here when we bought our property have scaffolds that start too low for baffles. Im starting a new small orchard and will be pruning for higher scaffolds so i can use baffles effectively. And we will be able to create electric fencing there.
Where the existing peaches are, there are too many other trees that provide squirrel cover and jumping off points.
Im resigned to losing my peach crop this year, but it still hurts.
I feel the pain. I think we all wish that we could send our current knowledge back to our younger selves. Especially with such a time hungry hobby (or profession depending on your situation). I’m not sure that I could train my trees differently due to all of the jumping off points but I could make it more of a challenge at the very least. My dog helps but since she is stuck to my side more often than not it leaves plenty of gaps.
@alan I’ve had to murder a good number in my past. Like you said, feels like a waste. Reminds me of my grandmother before she passed. She’d spend her days shooting them off of her feeders. Understandable but she kept a tally in a grim manner. Shed cut off their tails then add them to a string with the rest. Lover her to death but she could be pretty damn dark.
If I do start to shoot them I’ll probably throw the bodies to the chickens as supplemental feed. Waste not.
I am glad I am not the only one having a year like this I don’t live to far away from you @Drew51 but my trees are getting decimated. It’s too bad because this is my first year where I started getting an actual crop from some of my trees. Its really discouraging.
I counted 12 squirrels in my backyard yesterday and I fear for my peach trees.
What are your best tips for baiting the squirrelinator?
I’ve had it out for a week and got 1 but I’ve mostly just been losing bait. Ive been using unshelled unsalted peanuts. First the dug under and got the bait to fall through so I put it on some boards. Then I thought maybe it was chipmunks because I’ve seen them get in and out in the past. So I set up the “chimpmunkator” and a hav a hart and found them each flipped over 20 feet away with no bait and no catch.
There is a smaller tighter trap made by the company that makes the squirrelinator that works for chipmunks- or put rat traps baited with peanuts under heavy plastic trays. I use the ones big boxes sell to mix small batches of concrete. You need to eliminate them before you can trap the squirrels.
I use black oil sunflower seeds. I put them in a small container in the middle of the traps and lead them in with a scattering of them.
i use stakes to stake the entire trap to the ground in a place near where I’ve seen them get into the yard. i put nothing outside the trap.
i sprinkle peanuts and walnuts and a bit of ripe fruit inside the trap, near the door then the rest right in the center.
i put a little piece of board on top of the middle so they don’t get heat strike in there AND to keep the damn birds out. one year i think the year of this thread starting, maybe, we caught 28 in that thing.
right now we have an old fat patriarch of a squirrel who throws pine cones at me and only eats the corn. I’ve seen him fighting off smaller squirrels. him alone, it’s not so bad. he arrived right after we had caught tons of smaller guys. same year that autumn he showed up
if he gets a mate I’ll end up catching her and the baby’s again, that’s what happened last year. i caught them right as they were getting big enough to venture out and start hunting for food on their own. two at a time mostly!
if i check the trap i use a pellet gun. can’t handle the thought of drowning anything. my partner will load the entire screeching angry full cage into the car and drive it to our friends’ place- they are in the woods outside of town, and are a retired couple who feed squirrels; they like them. it’s a 10 mile round trip. he has a bit of a soft heart.
i however enjoy fried squirrel quarters (he’ll eat them, but he won’t kill em)
Are you leaving the bait out at night? Of course that attracted a raccoon who showed impressive strength and determination to flip over the rocks holding down the trap. I’ve now been baiting near first light. Which brings me to my next question - are traps to be left out all spring and summer? Or is there some indicator pressure is starting to be relieved?
Sometimes you have to stake traps down so coons can’t tip them. I piece of rebar works well. However, you need to trap out coons as much as squirrels in most cases.