Dang Vermin! Stole all the plums! Grrr....

[Hughman]

Had squirrels strip our peach tree clean in one night.

 

[CalG]

We are at 150 pounds of peaches and another tree ripening atm.

 

[Jstpssng]

tree ripening atm

I had to think about this. For a minute I thought your tree was producing so many plums it was like an ATM... not a bad analogy, really.

 

[JSanders10]

Had the same problem here with the 'coons and plums. I bought a 3' section of cheap single wall stove pipe to place around the trunk, zip tied it on and saved the fruit.

Now, last week I'm mowing grass and notice a coyote under my pear trees. Minutes later the coyote is jumping several feet in the air to the lower branches grabbing the pears off. Only a rifle can fix that.

 

[DarkBlack]

Was just outside picking some castleton, and superior variety plums.
Where I’m at in NH , unless you spray often at the right times, brown rot is the biggest obstacle to growing plums. I tried cutting back a bit this year. I’ve probably lost 30% of the castletons to brown rot. The bald face hornets, and other insects boring holes in them, only make it worse.
Mammals are a much lesser issue for me.

Peaches, apples, and pears are another story though

 

[Jstpssng]

The skunks never climbed a tree. They didn't have to. Just pick up all the fruit laying on the ground that the others had missed.

This sounds like a case of extortion on the skunks part to me... give me fruit or I'll spray you out of that tree.

 

[CalG]

The skunk must have been extracting their dues around the place last night.

Powerful odor wafting in the upstairs bedroom window.

Last time I went out to check on such matters, the pew kitten was less than 6 feet from the door. I'm not doing THAT again. ;-)

 

[Deere Dude]

I have about 20+ apple, peach and pear trees. 3 years ago I got about 28 6 gallon buckets of apples and they had just started producing a year or so before that. A year after that there were thousands of fruits started and the squirrels began their reign of terror. Kill them and more take their place. That year we got maybe 2 1/2 buckets of apples. Quite a drop.

I then bought about 30 Duke-100 traps and that really started weeding them out. This year the crop was down substancially I think because of the dry weather even though there are only a couple squirrels roaming around. It seems to be a constant struggle with squirrels and birds. There are to many houses around that I can't break out the artillery.

 

[Topzide]

There are to many houses around that I can't break out the artillery.

Time to get a nice air rifle! Got my .22 dialed in at 25yds! Sure put a hurting on the tree rats! Dog gets excited when I reach for it! He knows there will be something to fetch or chase.

 

[JethroB]

I swear raccoons knock down pears for fun, long before they are ripe enough to eat so dozens rot on the ground. Deer won’t eat very green pears either. I was kind the first year by blistering Mama coon and her babies with a paintball gun from directly underneath. After a few spotted evenings they left. The next year when Mama returned I had swapped the paintballs for a .410. Destructive little varmits.