What ate my peaches?

Sometime in the last couple of days something has more or less stripped my two year old contender of all the peach frutlets (only about a dozen or so fruits). I am seeing some damage on my older trees too. Seems to early to be netting given tia 2 months or so before they are ripe. It’s probably the squirrels but not sure if I need to be worried about something else. I have seen both possum and racoons (even a skunk).

I suspect the half eaten fruit to be the work of a chipmunk. The one with a hole, looks like a bird peck. What a pain to see so many fruits with pecks and nibbles.

I set rat traps with some success. I got a squirrel yesterday

I’m working on an electric cage to put around the trunks

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Those all look like bird damage. Other animals don’t like the fruits that small, only bugs and birds do.

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Do you start protecting your trees this early in the season? I was expecting the need closer to harvest based on what I have been reading.

Bird damage like that is generally in the level of noise. You might not have enough peaches on your tree yet but once it is covered with fruits the birds will only be damaging a small percent of the immature peaches. So, I wouldn’t worry about it.

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Thanks! I was moslty worried about my other larger trees getting stripped.