Ive read a bunch if previous topics on protecting fruit from birds and squirrels. What have been the most successful solutions? Im open to all ideas and would love to hear what I can do to protect my fruit. Lookung for battle tested solutions.
We have quite the time with tree or citrus rats here in my neck of the woods. Not counting my swimming pool (which “traps” it’s fair share of rodents), my best luck has been low-kill through bait in locked bait stations. I have large dogs, and none of them would be interested in eating a poisoned rat, but do know that this could be a consequence for some folks, especially those with small dogs. So, if you have a dog or cat that might be tempted, you need to take that into consideration. Also, if you have small children about, you need to make sure the bait stations are lockable. I have quite a few bait stations set up all over my property. Don’t be stingy. They do work. The low kill-through bait helps to protect wild prey animals from being killed by eating a disabled, poisoned rodent (i.e., hawks, owls, coyotes, weasels, etc.) Nothing else works as well for me. I cannot use cats due to our very high coyote population. And, despite many, MANY wild rodent predators (you name it, I have them, and I have a lot of them), I still have a pretty significant rodent population. So, bait stations work the best for me. Here is an informative article about various rodenticides and their effectiveness as well as their safety:
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/rodenticides.html
Another option is an electrified rat trap that electrocutes the rats when they come in to eat the bait. I have not tried those, yet, so I cannot offer up an efficacy for those types of rat traps.
Patty S.
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I don’t have the kind of pressure Patty has, but if I don’t keep traps up I get quite a bit of damage. I use havahart-type traps and euthanise the squirrel quickly with CO2. It’s as quick a solution as I have been able to come up with. (It’s generally illegal, for good reason, to relocate living vermin.) We seem to be able to minimize damage that way.
I’ve considered poisons but am concerned about secondary poisonings (I haven’t read the link Patty provided yet and am uninformed about that option). I’m always concerned about inadvertently catching the neighbor’s cat or some beneficial, although I doubt that PB is that attractive to cats. I’m not aware of skunks in town but we do get the occasional racoon- not that most 'coons could fit into the trap!
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I am about to start constructing an electric fence around my orchard similar to this one to hopefully keep the squirrels, coons and possums away. I am going to be using black vinyl coated wire that will look nicer:
Will it conduct electricity to a squirrel? I think a possum or 'coon will tear that plastic bird mesh down. Raccoons can go 20-25# around here and big males will chew their way out of a Havahart trap. I have the trap with a large hole in the side of it.
Still prefer a 22 rifle with subsonic ammo for tree rats and Golden maldrin in soda pop for raccoons and skunks, possums aren’t much of an issue here, rabbits are worse.
Being in town, we have a huge population of these pests and close to zero predators. Most of my perennials are not fruiting yet, but nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day, most of my annual garden gets tilled up to the depth of 3-5cm this time of year by animals looking for nuts hidden in the fall. They dig it up in the fall too, but it’s less annoying since I’m not starting as much and the plants are bigger!
Last weekend after a bunch of seedlings I had outside for the day got trashed I made up a trap using PVC pipe and a bucket from internet directions. Haven’t caught anything yet though. Grrr!
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Did you smear the inside of the tube with peanut butter and dump a bunch of black seeds in the bottom of the PVC tube? The peanut butter is supposed to lure them in and the black seeds are supposed to mask the water. I saw this same kill tactic and have been thinking about implementing one. Let me know if you get anything!
Yeah, smeared the peanut butter arm’s length down in the tube, plus a little around the top. I haven’t put the seeds in the bottom. Next day, the peanut butter on the top edge was gone but the stuff down the tube was still there, and no squirrel.
Try it with some black sunflower seeds on top of the water. Let me know if this ends up working.
Mark How did you do the Co2? that would be humane, Drowning is said to be a humane method. but if you imagine yourself in that situation, it is not. A pellet gun shot to the head also humane. In city limits you do that out of sight of neighbors and wear real safety glasses.
I will start squirrel removal June 1 and continue through the last apple. I use black walnuts in a cage trap. the trap is open at both ends but it needs the sides and one end blocked to get squirrels in relaibly
Does golden mandarin work on squirrels?
I have a canister of CO2 I buy from the local home brew supply. It’s a good sized bottle with gauges and valves and hoses and all to carbonate beer. After the squirrel is in the trap I slip the trap in a plastic garbage bag, and then slide the whole thing in a cardboard box that’s just big enough to hold the works. I stick the hose from the CO2 into the bag and open the valve until the plastic bag swells from the pressure -at most five or ten seconds. CO2 is heavier than air and so immediately settles to the bottom where the squirrel is. The squirrel loses consciousness very quickly and I leave it all set up for a few minutes to be sure.
I don’t know of a “pleasant” way to kill animals; my goal is to expedite the process to minimize the fear of the animal, as I’m convinced that the actual process of dying is easier for it than the capture and being enclosed.
It would be preferable in my mind to shoot them in the head at some distance, but that’s not legal here in town. I won’t use kill traps because I’m afraid of getting the wrong animal. This is the trap I use (I’m pretty sure):
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-Single-Animal-18-Inch/dp/B001HTJFWW
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Don’t know. I think it used to have a different formulation, so old info might not apply now.
Back on the Garden Web board there was some discussion of it, and as I recall it was considered very effective. I believe Lucky held that secondary poisonings were unlikely, but I’d best not put words in his mouth- maybe he’ll see this and comment.
Last time I looked it was available at the local farm supply place.
8/4/16 Addendum to the above
In a later response Lucky specifically warns against using Golden Malrin and says this on August 3, post number 129 below:
From what I read it works on everything and is very toxic and long lasting. I wouldn’t want it on my property. DCon mice and rat poison is less dangerous. Of course any poison should be used with caution.
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I’ve had good luck with havart traps full of sunflower seeds to bait squirrels. 20 seconds in a tub of water and they’re gone. I hate doing it, but they have cleaned off 95% of my non-citrus tree fruit the last two summers.
I’m also about to try one of those ultrasonic rodent repellers. I don’t expect it to work, will keep the traps out anyway.
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I tried an ultrasonic rodent repeller. A groundhog made its burrow about 10’ away from the thing.
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I second that. The ultrasonic thing was useless. (Or maybe didn’t work as I know I couldn’t hear it anyway)
Scott
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I have an ultrasonic mole chaser. The good news is that it have been in the ground for two yea,r all year long, and still working. The bad news is that the moles I have like it. They stayed within 1 ft of it and nested with their whole family.
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Man that’s a bummer. There doesn’t appear to be a reliable solution base on what I’m reading. 
It’s not PC, but I’ve heard that snares on an angled board can reduce a squirrel population (and slow the incoming population).
I’ve just got to find a way to easily and effectively make snares.
Don’t hate me, but I haven’t gotten a nectarine, Asian pear or European pear in years.
Scott