Last summer was our first significant crop on our new peach trees. We found that squirrels like peaches enormously greener than humans do! Does anybody have experience keeping squirrels out of small trees?
TIA, Dianna _______________________________________________ To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.
I think that trying to keep a squirrel out of a tree will be pretty fruitless .
Well, that's how it was last year. Dianna
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Seriously. I don't think that you're gonna have any luck diverting them. They are very agile and persistant when there is something that they want.
You could get even by painting the trunk and lower branches with tangle trap. You would have some very messy squirrels! (probably not really a good idea)
If the only way into the trees is up the trunk, there may be a chance. If there are branches so low to the ground that squirrels can jump up to them, your options are few. Peaches are usually trained with a very short trunk before the branches start. If, by chance, yours have a tall trunk, you might try stacking 2 liter soda bottles or pop bottles depending on where you live ;-)around the trunk. Cut off the top and bottom, then slit the side. Slip them around the trunk and stack as many as needed. They are very slippery (remove the paper label) and hard to climb. (A single bottle half way up my bird feeder pole was what finally worked for me.) It depends on how smart and determined your squirrels are. I'm SURE some have figured out how get around soda bottles.
OK, so the trunks are probably too short. I wonder what would happen if you sprayed hot pepper wax on the green peaches they would get to first? By harvest time it would be weakened and you will peel them anyway, right? Just a thought.
Steve (the other one)
Dianna Visek wrote: > Last summer was our first significant crop on our new peach trees. We > found that squirrels like peaches enormously greener than humans do! > Does anybody have experience keeping squirrels out of small trees? >
You could get even by painting the trunk and lower branches with tangle trap. You would have some very messy squirrels! (probably not really a good idea)
If the only way into the trees is up the trunk, there may be a chance. If there are branches so low to the ground that squirrels can jump up to them, your options are few. Peaches are usually trained with a very short trunk before the branches start. If, by chance, yours have a tall trunk, you might try stacking 2 liter soda bottles or pop bottles depending on where you live ;-)around the trunk. Cut off the top and bottom, then slit the side. Slip them around the trunk and stack as many as needed. They are very slippery (remove the paper label) and hard to climb. (A single bottle half way up my bird feeder pole was what finally worked for me.) It depends on how smart and determined your squirrels are. I'm SURE some have figured out how get around soda bottles.
OK, so the trunks are probably too short. I wonder what would happen if you sprayed hot pepper wax on the green peaches they would get to first? By harvest time it would be weakened and you will peel them anyway, right? Just a thought.
Steve (the other one)
Another alternative to the plastic bottles is an inverted cone of sheet metal (tin or aluminum) installed as high up the trunk as possible. If the diameter is big enough, the squirrels would have dificulties scaling over it, and them they would probably slide down it's steep sides. Cut out a circular piece of metal, flare an inner circle the diameter of the tree, bend the inner flaps up, and hold in place with a large hose clamp. Of course, the surest way to solve the squirrel problem is to trap them. I usually remove 20-30 a year, and near the end of the trapping, the frequency of seeing new squirrels goes down to almost nothing. Of course, new squirrels will move in the following season, but I find that the total number seems to be going down every year.
Sherw>
I also trap and relocate them, this past year I relocated 22 squirrels, 21 possums and 19 coons. It is the first year I have gotten more than a handful of pecans off my two trees. I still have plenty of coons and possums but have not seen a squirrel in a couple months.
Check your local laws prior do relocating. In New York, it's illegal to trap, relocated, and release animals.
Yup. Pretty stupid isn't it. You can poison it and that's just fine. Or you can use bear claw traps and kill it. It is legal to live trap animals but then you're supposed to call a game specialist to release it somewhere at a probable cost of $75 or so. Just another one of the idiotic laws in New York.
It is? I guess I'll have to be careful and not get caught! They sell live traps in NY. I wonder what they think people are using them for?
So Sam, (or anyone else) what is the best way to get a squirrel into a live trap? What bait is hard for them to resist? I haven't relocated any squirrels yet but would like to, in spite of Steve's warning. I'm way too far north for pecans but I do have some very hardy hazel nuts that try to produce a good crop 2 or 3 times a decade. The squirrels just about get them all.
Steve (the other one) in Northern NY
I also live in upstate New York, Albany to be precise. I bait my havaheart traps with peanut butter on crackers. It is irresistable for both squirrels and possums. Aware of the idiotic relocation rule, I run a fleixible hose from my car exhaust into the trap which I have placed in a large plastic bag. They are killed humanely in about 4 or
5 m>Steve wrote:
Poughkeepsie here. It's it so stupid what the state says is legal and what isn't. I gave up trying to figure out idiots here after the last senate election.
Just as information- there is a season for both opossum and squirrels [grays anyway] in NY. You also need a license to trap furbearers [opossum] even on your own property. [if your primary occupation is farming you and your immediate family can trap some furbearers on your property]
-snip-
It is hardly idiotic. Why should someone else 'benefit' from your nuisance animals? If they are harming your property or endangering your family then encon will dispose of them.
Jim
-snip-
Selective trapping. Live traps make releasing a skunk or possum [or cat, or dog] from a raccoon set much easier. It's been many years since I trapped, but I've also let small coons go rather than bother to skin them.
Jim
I bait with a ear of corn smeared with a couple table spoonful of peanut butter.
Ouch, this reminds me of something the Germans did in WWII. Can't you just go to a nearby forest preserve and let them loose?
Sherw>
an obsessed and active younger dog will harass the squirrels :-)
to the original poster: I'm assuming you have a mature peach tree which would have a large crop. yet almost all the fruit disappears or is very well eaten (unlike birds which tend to eat a small portion of each single fruit).
if you don't *SEE* squirrels hitting a *lot* of peaches, you may also have rats. you'll hear them scattering down the trees, when you walk nearby, a little after dusk.
the neighbors' incorrigible brats.
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