Over the weekend I tried to put up a few protection measures.
First I purchased some bird tape and put that up. I have a mulberry tree that kind of put itself there. I’m interested in trying some fruit, but it’s not something I was intending to be there. There is some tape in that tree as well as the peach and nectarine. I think we get a fair bit of wind so it’s usually in motion.
Second I built a 10x10x6 PVC tree cage. I intended to make it 10’ tall as well, but I couldn’t make it work. Perhaps because it’s just 1/2" PVC and was too wiggly, or maybe 10’ is just too tall. I’m going to get thicker PVC. How thick should I try and get 3/4" or 1"? It’s kind of flimsy, but should do the trick. It is overlaying rebar in the corners to not move.
I covered it with bird netting to hopefully keep out squirrels. I secured it at the bottom with some ground staples, but think in the future I’d roll up the PVC and secure that so it’s a little harder to get under. As the trees are new I tried to scrunch both in it this year, but in the future would make separate cages.
I’ve also purchased a Havahart trap to try and start trapping raccoons. I know that the Organza bags don’t do much, but I had already put them up and didn’t bother taking them down.
I’m still looking into things like garlic, sulfur, or soap in the trees for scent or repellents like ultrasonic devices or motion activated sprinklers. I’m thinking that I should also get some kind of motion activated camera to try and check on which pests visit and what they do?
We have the gradepro E8 trail camera. Works well. Family likes watching the playback of racoons coming to eat the compost. Seriously though we used it to figure out what was getting into various garden beds or eating certain flowers.
The one fail I had is with a pawpaw. The clamshell was ripped open and the fruit was gone. After I noticed that, I added a strip of tape (duct tape size, but translucent) around the clamshells of the other pawpaws and had no further problems. My assumption is that the pawpaw was plumb, juicy and smelling really good, plus it is large, so it was a prime candidate for a critter to say “it will take me some effort to get in, but the reward is big” whereas it just passes the other clamshells as too burdensome to take on.
I have lots of experience with chipmunks and squirrels. They have stripped my trees of all fruit before they ever ripen. I’d lose most or all my Santa Rosa plums, Asian pears and peaches to them. Tried everything.
This and rat traps are the only thing that worked for me.
Nothing we’ve tried has kept the squirrels from out fruit trees. Last year they stripped all 3 peach trees of fruit. It was the 1st time in 8 years they were a problem and I think it may have been because we had a recent mast year which made the squirrel population explode.
