As we were thinning our peach that was not hit so hard by the frost, we noticed some were freshly damaged by what looks like tiny teeth marks. I thought chipmunk. So I set a rat or mouse trap at the base of each of the 3 trees.Two of them were triggered , one with a mouse. Anyone hear of mice eating peaches?
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If they are hungry, mice (and rats) will eat almost anything.
Before I learned to better place and hide the traps, I also caught mice, voles, toads, birds, and rabbits while trying to trap chipmunks. The only thing I actually saw in the trees were chipmunks.
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I second that a hungry mouse will eat anything. I am guessing that it was probably a squirrel or chipmunk eating the peaches and the mouse is an accidental catch. Could be wrong though, and it very well could be mice
I picked up 16 Elberta peaches today, some with the same marks. Some were bitten off at the branch (branch still attached). 99% sure my culprit was a squirrel, that peach thief is sleeping with the fishes.
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Who knows, but usually chipmunks finish the job and only leave the seed, at most.
Here if a raw fruit is chewed or vanishes, then it’s squirrels for the seeds. They don’t care about the fruit it’s self.
I moved the traps to the scaffolds and wired them on. First day, none were touched. Today, the tree with lots of green peaches, both traps were set off. But no catch
The traps in that tree are one mouse and one rat trap. I could image a chipmunk approaching a mouse trap from the wrong side and getting tossed off. I have both traps facing bait down the scaffold
I hope I’m at least discouraging them.
If it is squirrels caged traps will work. Last year cleared well over 70 squirrels with caged traps, another 30 plus using other means. This year looking at 30 plus. Your pics do not indicate mice. If it is rats or mice use Dcon or some equivalent.
we have a dog so Dcon might be risky
You need a piece of 6 inch pvc pipe about 2 feet long. Wire it to the base of a tree. Place a rat trap with peanut butter on the trigger pan. Push that to the middle of the pvc pipe and wait. Chipmunks will smell the PB and go into the pipe and WHAMM! No more chipmunk damage. Make sure the pipe is long enough so your dog cant get its nose or paw into where the trap is.
Report day 3; Caught a second mouse with traps in the tree. Maybe my picture is misleading about teeth size. The peach was about dime size so the nibble mark is from a small critter. All hits at night, or between 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM. I plan to get more traps so each scaffold has protection.
Kellogg,
I have tried the trap/pipe trick when weasels were getting my chicken coop.
The good news is the OFM have been quiet this year with Triaicide sprays
This post helped me. I too had green unripe fruit that appeared to be eaten by a mouse. I set up a battery powered ring camera in my yard and it showed mice climbing up and down the tree. I did not think mice did that but this post reinforces what I saw on video. They also were collecting dropped fruit and moving it.