Protecting your fruit from squirrel's and other critters

These were knocked down today so I had no choice but to cut them open. They could use another few days but they were just as sweet. I have seeds if anyone wants them. They are Korean melons.

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What’s the inside look like?

Cream, yellowish color…I still have 1 more that I can take a pic as long as the critters do not get to it first…waiting a few more days on that one. It’s tough since I usually lose that battle.

This is the ripe KM

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I would love to try growing them. It looks pretty.

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Is there anything more disappointing? I only had a small crop of Goldrush apples and I check on them each morning when I walk through the trees with my fresh cup of coffee. While looking over my Yates apples I glimpse upward and three GR was gone. When I say gone I mean nothing was remaining. No ziploc bags nor any small pieces of apples. Usually they leave behind a partly eaten apple or a chewed on bag. Once again the critters knows when the fruit is ready. I picked another GR from a nearby tree and it was awesome and the seeds were dark. The critters have good taste and knows a good apple.

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Bummer…It’s the price we pay trying to compete with nature.

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Could it be they dropped?

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It is possible that they dropped.

It is a bummer but I plan to upgrade my defense next year with an electric fence around my orchard.

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Bill,
Someone told me to put bird nettings, the cheap black ones on the ground around each tree to protect against squirrels. I was told squirrels do not like going through the netting. I tried anything.

The first week, it looked like it worked. No squirrels coming through my “rings of fire”. That ended today when I saw a peach was eaten by a squirrel inside the bird netting ring.

By the way, when there is no evidence under a tree, my suspicion is a groundhog. Squirrels often take a bite or two and left evidence. A Groundhog will take a whole bag back to where it lives. I found 20 + bags near and in front of a gro7ndhog hole,

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You might be right about it being a groundhog. When I have read about everyone’s problem with them I think to myself that I’m so glad I don’t have them. They appear to be hard to eliminate. There is a wooded area on one side of my property and they might be coming in from that area. Sure hope my planned electric fence works.

A groundhog is eating a friends tomatoes and peppers. They setup a Have a Heart trap with those vegs in it. They see him look at it but it never goes in it.

My problem now is that the squirrels have lost interest in the peanut butter I use this time of year. Perhaps they lost interest because of all the ripe acorns. My pawpaw tree had five fruit for the first time this year. When I checked yesterday they were all gone.

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I love Korean Melons. I grew them up here in Maine a few years ago. I ended up with about 10 of them on three plants. I buy them at Hmart in Cambridge MA, and I used the seeds I got from out of the melons. If you have never had these melons you eat the seeds along with the flesh. The seeds are where most of the sweetness is.

Someone here suggested two things that I have followed and it has worked in trapping groundhogs.

Wear gloves. Do not use bare hands touching a trap. This is to avoid human scent being transfered directly to the trap.

Put a trap in their path. Watch their route and set a trap on their route and best, in front of their holes/nests.

I tried trapping groundhogs for 3-4 years and caught a baby a couple of years ago by accident. This year, I have folowed those two rules. I got 3 groundhogs, 2 opossums and a raccoon.

No need to do this with Squirrels. They are so greedy. They will do anything to get to food.

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Today my groundhog visited our yard and at the same time a falcon or a bald eagle most likely a bald eagle, tried to catch him! We were watching the whole thing for almost 5 minutes. Eagle kept flying around it and landing on the fence. It went down to the groundhog once but didn’t grab it. We were cheering on the eagle from inside. I’m not sure if it could fly away with that chubby groundhog. Instead of running away Groundhog hid inside a shrub and didn’t move. That shows how smart he is. We’ve seen more bald eagles around lately. Hopefully the squirrel population will go down.

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Up thread, I recommended jujubes to someone claiming squirrels do not touch them. How wrong I am!!!

Saw a squirrel running down my jujube tree today. On the ground, a dropped jujube was munched by a bunny. Yellow jackets love my Honey Jar. It seems no frut is safe from critters.

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This is an interesting perspective I came across. What do you all think :wink::smiley:

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My sweet sweet 5 year old spent about an hour building this rock wall today to block the space in between two fences so that groundhog won’t come in and eat mommy’s veggies. I just had to share. He’ll be disappointed to see the groundhog making its way to the wide open yard anyway. But hey it’s the thought that counts.

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I’m impressed with his effort. Reminds me of my grandson who is always wanting to help. Is the electric wire for the groundhog? Does two wires work best? I’m planning to add more wire around my high target fruits. Raccoons and Opossums are my problem.

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