Just came in from not picking pears from our Beurre Gifford tree, our earliest ripening pear tree. All the pears were gone. No sign that there ever were any. No drops. No remnants of pears in the tree or on the ground. I know there were pears on the tree two days ago. I checked and noted that they were almost ready. The tree was shy bearing this year with only between two dozen and 30 pears.
What critter or combination of critters are responsible I don’t know. We don’t imagine humans are to blame, since we live out in the country and at least one of us has been around all the time. The highest pears couldn’t be reached by a deer or without a ladder. Birds would have pecked at them and left evidence.
The tree is down by the creek, not in the orchard, so not protected by a fence. In contrast, however, in the orchard this morning I noticed two pears on the ground under a Clapp’s Favorite tree, our second earliest tree. They were only half devoured.
Strange! A mystery. Any guesses as to the culprit or culprits?
We have been seeing a large groundhog, and I spotted it in a nearby potato patch this morning. I didn’t think groundhogs climbed trees, but I just checked and found pictures online of woodchucks in trees. I think this whistlepig is now my leading suspect.
I had about a dozen young of the year coons go through the yard a few nights ago(saw them on our Blink cam) They were all quite small, they likely wouldnt damage a fruit tree
When raccoons eat peaches here they leave the pitts , but with pears they would probably eat seeds and the core. I had a squirrel empty a peach tree once but the grass mashed down under the tree seems to indicate a larger animal.
I agree with coons. When they climb it shakes everything so the fruit all fall off. The smashed grass is most likely deer eating what fell down then laying down after a fat meal. Several of my trees got stripped in the last couple days. I’m currently wrapping them with flashing. Several feet up I tacked some 1x2’s and wrapped that with flashing. Working good so far.
I hang 2’ sections of stove pipe around the trunks of the trees coons hit hard. They seem to have some favorites. Suspended about a foot off the ground they have been foolproof so far.
Years ago we had a huge coon raid a young bearing Pixiecrunch tree. It eventually removed 20 + apples. So, I do not fight fair with coons. I use a hand trap with special coon bait and it works. Then the next morning a 22LR to the head and one less coon. With ground hogs I find the den and toss in a smoke bomb. You can guess the rest. In the middle of our corn/bean/wheat field we use phosgene and I do not recommend that - that is for very careful professionals.
I have had this problem as we likely all have. A slightly different angle on this, what do people use for monitoring for those inclined?
Of course there are the “natural methods,” i.e. inferring the pest based on bite marks, what’s left, etc but if we want to know more or have a more concrete conclusion…
I’ve never used one for its intended purpose but I’ve found lots of options for trail cameras on Amazon, and then there’s normal security cameras.
OP’s situation sounds like it’d be away from wifi, which is probably typical of most that are beyond a simple backyard, but I can probably get one booster to cover my whole yard. What do you all use?
