My latest trick on the squirrels

[Joe Pelonio]

10 years ago I planted a gravenstein apple tree in the back yard. They are notorious for taking a long time to bear fruit.

After 6 years when it was 10' tall with never a blossom I moved it to a sunnier location. The next year I got one apple. Every day I checked it, to pick it as soon as it was ripe. One day it was gone, no sign of it. I blamed it on the squirrels.

The next year it had about a dozen apples. Again, as soon as they were close to being ripe all of them dissapeared. This is in the fenced back yard and we have another apple tree, so it was not likely to be kids or deer.

Then another year with nothing, two more years with just a few that got stolen. Still haven't been able to eat one!

This year I think I have outsmarted the little bushy-tailed devils. I took a two-liter soda bottle and used a zip tie to cover up the apple. I'll do the same on the others later, have to get out the ladder for them. I've saved up lots of the bottles just for this project.

[Nancy Laird]

Joe, did you know that's how winemakers get the pears in the wine bottles. It will work--outsmart the little buggers!!!

Good job!!!!

Nancy

[mark page]

Hey Joe,

I can feel your pain. Want to see some photos of the tree with all the bottles on it though once apple production increases. Never seen this trick before. Great ingenuity.

[Jim O'Dell]

Ours is a pear tree. Squirrels sit in the tree, take a bite out of them, toss them to the ground, then try the next one. Either that or they're trying to hit the dogs with them!! 3 summers and not a single bite for the humans. Pears never get much over the size of a golf ball. I'll be interested to hear how this turns out. Might be worth drinking DP from plastic bottles to try a home grown pear. Jim.

[David G Baker]

I live trap squirrels and release them in the forest. Some years I have trapped as many as 70. If I see a red squirrel I always set a trap. If I see a chipmunk I always set a trap. I like to keep a couple greys, blacks or browns around because they clean up my acorns and small pine cones. If I have more than 4 or 5 of the larger squirrels around I will start trapping and moving them.
The squirrels will eat my apples but that is in the late Winter when the apples are in bad shape. I have more problems with the birds pecking at them.

[Kyle Kraft]

Victor rat traps work well. I use them on the chipmunks...you know the kind with the twin racing stripes down their backs. I built plywood boxes to slide the traps in, and just place them near the hole. The curious critters step into the box for a peek and WHAM!!!!!!

My apologies to the bunny huggers.

[David Epperson]

No worries Kyle. I tend to try and relocate the squirrels in my yard from the pear and pecan trees to the freezer.

[David G Baker]

It would be much cheaper popping the critters but the LOML insists that I dig a hole for each demised critter and I don't like blisters on my hands.
Growing up we had many of the larger squirrels for dinner. I spent too much time in suburban California and lost the hunting drive that I was raised with. I am real good with the live traps though.

[Kyle Kraft]

David,

Sorry to hear about your Californiazation. I bury my chipmunks near each tomato plant in the garden. How's that for the circle of life...turning destructive rodents into nutritious vegetarian food!! Of course the tomatoes go best when slapped on top of a patty made of ground up dead cow!

[Art Mulder]

Ours is a pear tree. Squirrels sit in the tree, take a bite out of them, toss them to the ground, then try the next one. Either that or they're trying to hit the dogs with them!

Huh. I was going to suggest a dog, but evidently, Jim's dogs aren't enough to keep out the squirrels! Funny, our neighbour has two dogs, and the squirrels stay well out of their yard. We get tons of squirrels, as we have a birdfeeder and they come scavenge all the sunflower seeds that the birds drop.

We had a black plum tree for almost 5 years and never tasted one, as either the weather or the squirrels got them all. I gave up on it and gave the tree to my friend who has 4 acres outside of town.

I wonder how the bottles will affect the apples, as it will be like small individual greenhouses.

[David Epperson]

I wonder how the bottles will affect the apples, as it will be like small individual greenhouses.

LOL. You could ventilate them a bit...provided that he squirrels don't chew holes in them for you. The bottlers of pear and apple wines/brandies use glass bottles and the fruits at least look like they ripened OK.

[Joe Pelonio]

This is an experiment, I'd rather have the apple cook inthe bottle than let those little buggers get them again. Actually it's only sunny July and August here and at most 85 normally.

We have two dogs that love to chase the squirrels but they rarely catch them, and they stay inside most of the time.

[Doyle Alley]

I don't see any reason it won't work. If you have ever seen the peach brandy that is produced in France, you'll see that each bottle has a whole peach in it. They get them in there by putting the empty bottle over the baby peach.

[Pete Lamberty]

Well you might get some apples to eat this year but the squirels around here would just chew through the plastic to get to the apple. We have a big plastic recycling garbage can on wheels, you've probably seen them. They are made from some kind of thick plastic. Well the squirels must have smelled something in there because they chewed one heck of a big hole in the garbage can. I was amazed that they would do that. Maybe you could try spraying the apples with a real soapy solution or hot pepper spray. Nobody likes the taste of either. Then all you have to do is wash them off before you eat them.

[James Carmichael]

No worries Kyle. I tend to try and relocate the squirrels in my yard from the pear and pecan trees to the freezer.

That's how we did it where I come from, but my yuppie neighbors wouldn't approve (unless, of course, it was their fruit being eaten).

I'm gonna have to do something, my nectarines are finally producing and it's all been food for the tree-rats thus far.