I have about a half dozen young Fig plants,well maybe five now,from about a foot to three feet tall inside a small greenhouse.Something,a Rat or Squirrel possibly,is eating them up.
It started happening about a week ago,when I noticed the terminal buds were cut off on a number of the plants.Then a few days later,gnaw marks were near the base of one.
Then today I checked and one of the small one’s tops were completely gone and a larger trunk of another was almost ringed near the base.
Some of the plants are sitting inside planters suspended by chains,about four feet from the ground,so I’m not sure if they are Rats.I guess they can jump or find a way.It doesn’t look like anything else growing in there is being touched.
Tonight,I set two Tomcat Rat traps with Peanut butter and put two sticky traps on the floor. Brady
I hope you get 'em! I’m leaning towards tree squirrel – but who knows…
If they are hanging 4’ up I would suspect a squirrel
I checked the traps today and all the Peanut butter was gone and no trip.
I’m going to try something I saw in a video,using an Almond kernel.The guy drilled a small hole in it and fixed to the bait holder.He also scraped it using a drywall screw to release the oils.
Another had best success using Gummy type candies. Brady
Squirrels gnaw on the bark of my fig trees. I trap them with drilled almonds and walnuts in conibear traps. Bad squirrels!
Did a google images search on conibear traps. Youch! There are more pictures of dogs trapped in these than actual vermin.
May try something with a lighter trigger than a rat trap…something for small mice. Do you have a game camera?
Brady,
I bought a mouse trap with a small sunken reservoir to place the peanut butter in it. It got the mouse every time.
Tony
I guess it could be mice or a very smart Rat or Squirrel.
I’d like to have a camera,just to see how they get up that high,but don’t.
I had one of those Mouse traps years ago,with the well and remember it working very effectively. Brady
I had all my figs wrapped in two tarps under the house last year in one tarp the mice ate everything girdling two or more two yr old figs and eating the roots out of the 3 gal. containers.the other tarp they made a nest in but none of the figs were harmed.small mice can do a ton of damage.
those vermin-mammals must be really hungry! Here in vegas, only desert tortoises have ‘iron-tummies’ capable of dealing with fig sap/latex!
btw, roof rats here may raid fruits, but are not known to attack the trees/foliage
In SoCal the greatest fig threat is the gopher.
oh yeah, those pesky gophers!
These are probably Mice.The two Rat traps were sprung,after baiting them with an Almond kernel.The spring arm most likely missed them,because of their small size,but it must have scared the crap out of them.
I set four Mouse traps tonight. Brady
Let us know what you catch. I had a similar issue with a mulberry I grafted last year. I could not keep rodents from cutting it off.
Sure,there seemed to be no activity last night.No traps were sprung and the little bits of cracked Almond that were scattered around haven’t been eaten.
They may be regrouping to form new strategies,after going through the terrifying ordeal they experienced the night before. Brady
I have a game camera that my wife got me for Christmas so next time I will find out what is getting my mulberry.