I was told the lazy/disinterested cats just don’t really care hungry or otherwise; just happens to be they always have a couple of those around.
Oddly, there was one really fat/chubby tabby. Apparently, he was the most successful snake killer… Go figure.
A regular fence plus two strands electric has worked for me for decades. Populations rise and fall but I’ve never had raccoons or squirrels inside when the electrjc is on. We also have always had well fed in/out cats who are very good hunters and keep their territory pretty clear of rodents. Natural preditors do their job, too. Of course, without food they go elsewhere. We’re blessed with plenty of both. But it’s the fence that let’s me sleep at njght when the corn or cherries are ripe! Sue
@Sue-MiUPz3 If the fence has electric wont it hurt your cats? I feed a few stray cats that come to the front/back to eat. Dont want the fence to hurt them. Appreciate very much if you can share more details of your setup…
They may not allow it around the perimeter of your property but you may be able to cover a section within your property. Look into that.
If shooting, trapping or poisoning is not an option then an aggressive dog, properly designed electric fence, netting or squirrel baffle can work.
@alan knows how to do the squirrel baffle. It will work for raccoons also. In addition to preventing them from climbing there cannot be any nearby objects that they can jump from. Also lowest branches should be 5 ft from ground. DIY Squirrel Baffle ideas? - #3 by clarkinks
Strong netting can work although putting on and taking it off each year is not fun. Also a squirrel can chew through it if determined.
For very dwarf fruit trees and low growing berries like blueberries a screen house structure will work. Use heavy duty screening like 1/2 wire mesh. Do a google search “blueberry screen enclosure” for ideas.
Electric fence is the only thing that has ever worked for me. For squirrels you will need to make sure there are no nearby trees that they can jump onto your fruit trees from.
I do use the baffles at scores of orchards where fruit is removed without them. The problem is that trees have to be trained to have high branches that start at least 4’ up the trunk, and yes, at some sites even 5 if you are training scaffolds close to horizontal. Some years I have to reapply the mixture of axle grease and motor oil I use to cover the aluminum flashing cylinders or cones I use 2 or 3 times if the squirrels keep struggling to climb up and gradually remove it.
@hambone ,
Great video of flying squirrel !
( I have flying squirrels here, .but … Not that kind… )
Just a thought …?
Wondering if that could be @Girly ’ s neighbors ?
Throwing squirrels into her yard ?
And then if she sets one up . Oh my… And others…
Poor squirrels…
Maybe if everyone aimed for city limits,…
Instead of that anioying neighbor,
Shurly at some point they would leave town altogether.
( it could be the hill folks , lobing squirrels down at the town ?)
Let the squirrel wars begin. Throw humanly …
I remember life in suburbia…
People round here would just make squirrel gravy.
Not real sure what that is , but it’s a thing around here…
@danzeb - Thanks! Strong netting / Screen enclosures added to my list - @alan Thanks! Unfortunately with the low scaffolds and 6’ height pruned trees right next to fences - baffles wont work for me.
I have to say that my experience differs on this. We live in an area next to a national park, and we have a large and varied population of varmints here - deer, raccoons, opossums, foxes, coyotes, badgers, etc. When we started an orchard and ornamental garden, we put up a six-foot perimeter fence to give our two rescue dogs (who have a dog door) free access to the whole place. Ten years later: no varmints whatsoever molest our trees, if you don’t count the gophers. This has effectively solved the problem for us, without anyone having to kill the varmints. There are plenty of other places for them to go around here, both settled and wild. I don’t think that we’re exporting our problem onto our neighbors; the presence of people is the real problem. Neighbors who care about their gardens do what we do; neighbors who don’t, don’t. The varmints don’t need to steal fruit from people to survive. They just like to, if they can.
Let me hasten to add, though, that we don’t have much of a squirrel population here. Our various raptors apparently keep their numbers in check. Places without natural predators present a more difficult situation, I’m sure. We’d probably adopt a cat or two if there were more squirrels.
Don’t tell anyone, but I had great success poisoning squirrels. I put a bait station on the fence where the squirrels run past, and filled it with “peanut butter” flavored bait. The baits I can find any more aren’t super lethal, they have to eat it for a good while to die. At a certain point I was reloading it every 24-48 hours. It took a couple of months, but there were zero squirrels in the neighborhood for over a year!
i put out peanut butter flavored block bait for the voles in the fall. maybe thats why i don’t see many squirrels as they probably got into the bait also before the snow came.
My back yard is overflowing with critters. Fortunately, there is lots of food all around so they mainly sample my trees here and there. An unfenced tree will get destroyed by a buck in the fall. A low electric fence around the sweet corn works very well on raccoons. An old neighbor trapped and killed 13 raccoons in a couple months. I think he gave up. Here is a trail camera in my back yard.
To be clear: the presence of people (like me) who chose to live adjacent to a wilderness area is why we have so much wildlife to contend with here. It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to suggest that we should kill them all to protect our fruit trees. Your situation may well be different. I’m just relating what has worked for us, as a possible alternative for @Girly.
See above. This is how we deal with the wildlife issue here, and note that I began my description by saying that I’m describing my experience, and I’m talking about my neighbors. It’s not clear to me why you find it dismaying, or indeed have much of an opinion about it at all.
When raptors- eagles, hawks, owls- eat those poisoned squirrels they can die. This secondary poisoning of raptors is a big problem. I hate squirrels but would never resort to poison as it doesn’t stop at the squirrel.
It’s anticoagulant poison, it has to be eaten continually for a good while to be lethal. There’s a reason it’s the only poison still for sale (at least here in CA).
A lot of the new formulations have low secondary poisoning risk, mostly because the newest generation of rodenticides aren’t anti-coagulants (such as bromethalin). Just pointing that out for those that use them.
