I’ve previously only had crops of citrus, so I haven’t had to worry much about protection, but I gather this is about to change. I’ve been browsing around and have a few questions.
I live in an area where I believe my only problem animals will be Squirrels, Raccoons, and Possums. I have a very active squirrel-proof bird feeder with a lot of squirrels that eat anything that hits the ground. They are not a nuisance, but I imagine there are a good number of them. We see Raccoons occasionally. There is a restaurant nearby that I think they visit the dumpsters of and cross our property to do so. Generally we live in a suburban area on a peninsula so not many land animals can cross all of the gates and fences to get to our property. When I’ve tried to trap the Raccoons I’ve also found a large number of Possums in the trap, but I never see them otherwise and they don’t bother us.
As I have never had a crop for them to bother, I think I’m safely unknown right now. But I do have a few small stone fruits that I want to keep them from discovering.
1 - How effective are Organza bags? What sizes do I need? I had read somewhere about using 4x6 bags but after buying some I’m worried they might be too small. I’m also not entirely sure how to attach them to the fruit/tree. I’ve been just pulling them tight around the small fruit and double knotting around the wood. Do I need to buy 5x7 instead to fit mature fruit?
2 - How effective will netting be for these 3 animals? I’ve read a fair bit of posts here and wasn’t quite sure if I should build a PVC cage and net, or can just net the tree without a framework. I’m leaning towards PVC cages. What should I be netting with? I had seen others using this net - Amazon.com and I was going to use ground staples to fasten to the ground. Should I still have Organza nets over the fruit within the netting?
3 - What traps should I use? I would prefer to start with not trying to trap squirrels. I don’t mind them at the moment and there are a lot currently causing no issues. I do plan to try and trap any raccoons though. They cause issues with our pool occasionally. I’ve borrowed a trap in the past but I’m looking to buy one. I see Havahart mentioned a lot. Is there any other Raccoon/Possum trap I should look at? Amazon.com
4 - Is there anything else that is effective? I’ve seen a lot of ideas such as: Garlic in the trees, Sulfur in the trees, Bird Scare tape, Motion Sprinklers, and Ultrasonic devices. Are any of those worth trying?
Organza bags don’t work against squirrels or anything larger - they just take off the fruit with the bag and tear through it. These are supposed to save you from worms and friends.
I recently bought ultrasonic devices because raccoon and squirrel situation got absolutely ridiculous. Will let you know in a few weeks if they work.
My hope (no experience with this) is that as the critters here are unaware of the fruit that the organza bags offer some protection. The goal is for them to never know what they are missing. Is that unrealistic? Even if they’ve never come across peaches here before they’ll get into the tree?
I’m curious to hear about the ultrasonic devices. When I looked on Amazon I realized that they seemed quite good as they had almost all 5 star reviews. But then on looking closer I realized that it was all just AI writing amazon reviews from the description of the product and was a bunch of garbage. They all had the same words over and over with the same structure and conclusion. Who takes time to write a conclusion to a review? It might work, but I didn’t trust any of the reviews I found there.
Timely post. I’m feeling defeated cus I just had ALL of my stratified hickories and pecans for planting wiped out by squirrels because they got under my chicken wire after the storms.
Made a post on the seeking forum looking for nuts and saplings.
Richard can I ask what you put outside of the cage? Do you have a net/screen/cloth that you use that works at keeping things out? Do you secure it in any way like rocks or zipties or ground staples?
My squirrels don’t care about capsaicin, unfortunately. I have yet to figure out what they don’t like other than loud noise. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting motion sensors where I can make my own recording of a banging noise and my dog barking, but it’ll be wildly annoying to everyone around.
Oh Yes! I remember reading this one yesterday. I had thought it sounded familiar. I am drawing some inspiration from that. It was very helpful to see pictures of the trees in the cages. I’m hoping to be able to keep my trees pruned to similar sizes and do something like this.
Reading it again I understand a little better about how you’ve used wire in 2’ strips for the sides. Do you think if that’s mesh instead of wire it wouldn’t be as effective? Or are wired panels like that easier to move and store?
I see why you don’t worry about the bottoms. I’m mostly going to be setting up on dirt areas so I will need to think about how to secure that part.
If it is not metal then critters will tear right through it. I had considered hardware cloth but I wanted to give pollinators access to the trees.
The access method during harvest season(s) is by “windows” that close shut by zip ties. My wife does not care for this. So I’m rebuilding these cages over the next two years with wider panels and doorways. Sturdier vertical pieces will be required.
I have a have a heart type box trap that I bought at our local TSC store many years ago.
I have caught lots of squirrel, coons and possum in it.
A dried ear of corn placed and secured just behind the trigger pan works well on squirrels. Sprinkle a few kernels just outside the entrance and make a trail of kernels leading into the box trap entrance.
Coons can be caught with marshmallows.
Possums will go for just about anything, peanutbutter, catfood.
Coons and Possums would both go for fish oil or fish bait (think can if mackerel) but that may also capture your or your neighbors cat…
If you catch a critter and in your neiborhood you are not allowed to shoot a firearm… put the box trap critter and all in a 55 gal contractor trash bag … squeeze all the excess air out if it that you can and seal the bag air tight. In 24 hours the critter will be dead.
I found you can’t trap your way out of critter problems. So what is you catch one when 6 other raid your tree.
The only thing I found that works 100% is an electric fence. Not just your standard hot wires spaced every 8 inches, squirrels can jump through or jump on a post. They need a ground to get zapped. For my 100’ to 50’ orchard, I use 24 inch tall chicken wire with the bottom at/below ground level. Two inches above the chicken wire begins the hot wires. This keeps squirrels out.
Probably,the best success I’ve had is with something like a Clemson Fruit Bag,which is a treated paper,so that it can be somewhat rainproof.
At least,that hides the fruit and may contain some of the scent,for awhile.But,like Mrs G wrote,they don’t care and will most likely get to them.They have all night to figure it out.
I’m sorry I tried to describe our yard a little earlier but probably not so well. My yard is very suburban, but I do live in a city. To get to us any critter would need to go through about 10+ yards. I’ve never seen a deer or squirrel here. We do live on a peninsula with a restaurant at the end though, so I assume the possums and raccoons travel through our yard to get to their dumpsters at night.
As a result I believe there are only around 3 raccoons that travel through which is why I think trapping them can be more successful. Squirrels are very abundant though, so I don’t have much hope trapping them. I’m pretty sure that neighbors feed them, and we have a very active bird feeder that they frequent, but are unable to access so they just feed on the ground.
The picture is just one area that I have planted. My plan is to have the trees mostly pruned small and close together, but they are all going to be near something that any squirrel could jump to, so I don’t think any kind of baffles or such would work. Too many low limbs or branches to jump from. That is why I figured cages would be something good to try.
I feel I’m pretty handy and could build something without too much trouble (a 1x or 2x wooden cage with metal), but I wouldn’t be able to store that the same way. If I figure I want an 8x8 or 10x10 then I’d be looking at 5 panels per enclosure and I’d probably need ~3 enclosures which is probably going to occupy more space than I can devote to it.
Building with PVC instead of wood makes it easier to put up and take down, but I don’t think that any kind of metal would be very easy to attach and detach.
I guess I need some compromise between how much space a 10x10 frame built out of 2x4 wood with metal would occupy and how much less protection a 10x10 out of PVC with mesh would provide. I’ll have to think on that.
