Okay. I need help.
Yesterday I had a tree full of pears.
This morning I went out to pick them and there were 3 left.
Even the ones up high.
None on the ground - either partially eaten or whole. Nothing.
No broken branches.
We have deer but I’ve never seen them fly.
We have lotsa birds but they would just take bites.
I have 2 upside down fake crows out there and I haven’t seen any crows circling or landing to eat.
But they wouldn’t usually carry them away anyway.
The same thing happened to the Shiro plums (I mentioned it on this site) and I assumed it was birds because they’re small fruit. I was probably wrong.
Raccoons or squirrels worked all night stealing your fruit. I leave my wild animals fruit on the ground every time I harvest and never pick up wind falls. Chances are you have a higher population than the area can easily support of one of the animals mentioned.
I’ve seen my one squirrel who lives at my pond gathering his hedge apples very late at night but there was moonlight. Most animals turn into nocturnal feeders if there is daytime pressure on them or vice versa daytime feeders if there is night time pressure. Your right most city squirrels have a 9-5 job whereas raccoons in the city work the evening shift. For some reason raccoon are more unacceptable to see in the city to people. I’ve seen deer feeding in the daytime in the city but here most deer are feeding at night.
I’ve never seen squirrels here but my neighbor said he saw a racoon.
Where there’s one there could be more.
Wouldn’t there be broken branches?
Is there something that can be wrapped around trunks?
Something slick or annoying to them? Or some kind of horizontal disc that they couldn’t crawl over?
I’m pissed.
Last year it was crows. Now racoons.
There are still a white flesh peach, apples, and Asian pear trees to worry about now.
This is irritating.
I’d just put a maze of electric fence wire low to the ground starting about 20 foot around the tree if there are no other trees close by. The raccoons will be shocked and your crop will be safe https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/electric-fencing
Bubba, I hate to even suggest this…but were there any detectable HUMAN tracks in the area? Hopefully not, but there have been cases of people stealing fruit, etc. Randy/GA
I hadn’t thought of that.
We’re on the edge of a 2 acre lot in a development where everyone is on similarly sized lots.
The location of the trees abuts a wooded area.
I give most of the stuff away to neighbors anyway so I can’t imagine any of them would want to bother with the picking themselves.
And the site isn’t visible from the road.
Too far from the house. No power out that far.
About the pack rat … do you know if they’re typically found as far north as PA?
Do you or anyone else know how effective the racoon repellants are?
Liquid or granules would make the mot sense given the circumstances.
Repellant, Liquid Fence ( brand name), may repel deer and bunnies if they have other things for them to eat. It does not repel squirrels as they ruined many of my fruit sprayed repeatedly with Liquid Fence. I assume it won’t deter raccoons or opossums, either.
yeah. I had some Liquid Fence so I sprinkled it around the trees that still had fruit.
it is for deer and rabbit but that’s all I have.
I have to get something more specialized.
This whole growing fruit thing has become a full time job.
You mean the ultrasonic repellents?
It’s appealing but I heard that some people can hear it too.
The other thing is that I had some solar powered lights for the steps of a deck and they lasted about a week.
And I’m suspicious about something like that that only costs 20-30 bucks.
It’s not that I want to pay more, I just don’t want to waste money.
I may try it anyway if I can get it past the boss.
Coons can’t make it up a trunk free of branches for about 4 ft it you staple a solid cylinder of aluminum roofing coil to about the top 32 inches of it. This will USUALLY deter squirrels- especially if kept slick with a motor oil- axle grease mixture. Keep seams smooth and install lower ring first (home depot has nothing wider than 24"). For squirrels and chipmunks it has to be stapled very tightly, chipmunks can actually squeeze through 1" chicken wire although it seems unfathomable (I’d like to see a you-tube video of that).
Regrettably, a couple weeks ago I had the same thing…estimate a bushel of apples (red but not ripe) disappeared one night. This was a 28 year tree, seedling rootstock. Not deer and not 2-legged varmints. My guess is raccoon.
Solar powered units that I’ve tried leave over a second between pulses and squirrels contact the wire for just a moment. I’ve had better success with a plug in, constant charge unit although I admit my experience is limited.
I did find out that you can use the typical grey, heavy electric wire used in homes to transfer the charge quite a distance just by setting it over a lawn. The wire disappears in a short time and is well enough insulated to deliver the charge to the hot wires at least a couple hundred feet. It may not be legal, but I don’t believe it is very dangerous, the charge isn’t nearly lethal to humans, although I wouldn’t want a crawling baby to contact a live wire on a dewy morning.