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Fruit & Orchards

Keeping Squirrels Out of the Orchard

17 years ago

Hello,

We have a home orchard in the San Franscisco Bay Area, and the squirrels stripped our apricot and peach trees of ALL of the ripening fruit last year! Very frustrating!! I am writing to ask if anyone has found an effective way to prevent this...you see lots of "methods" on the internet, but its hard to know which, if any, really work. Specifically, does surrounding the tree trunk with a sheet metal sleeve keep the squirrels out of the tree..or do they jump (more or less vertically) onto low (about 2 feet off the ground) branches? Do they really do much jumping--(for example, from tree to tree) or do they usually just climb up the trunk? How about the electrical fence approach??

Again, its hard to know what to believe..and I'd be most appreciative if anyone with real-life experience with this problem could share their success/failure stories!

Thanks very much!

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Comments (8)

Scott F Smith
17 years ago
The sheet metal approach only works if there is absolutely nothing anywhere nearby or below that the squirrels could jump on to get around the barrier. This includes low branches, fence, wires, neighboring trees to jump from, etc. The barrier also has to be high and wide enough that they cannot jump for the edge. Also keep in mind that you will probably grossly underestimate how far/high they can jump.

See below for other ideas discussed in this forum.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: past squirrel threads in this forum
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villandry
17 years ago
Pellet guns work wonders. We actually have people that feed the damn things.
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Arghh! The chipmunk(s) discovered the bed, I put netting up (hoops closer this year) and 1 strangled himself trying to fit through 1" mesh. But something (squirrels?) is still getting in and eating literally half the berries (I find the other halves). Pulling pegs out of soft ground and going back out the same way? B/c only a few pulled, haven't found a critter trapped. Put heavy stones on those places and I plan to make the bed narrower next year so we can get pegs in better. Someone mentioned pipe - that sounds good, go the full length, easy for me to move, but how heavy so squirrel doesn't move it? Would they just dig under? Thinking a 2x4 frame with chicken wire, but would have to re-do the bed to make it a series of beds with lids since current bed is so long. And how to keep them from digging under? I just can't think of anything that would be easy for me to (re)move to pick, but keep the rodents out. Help!
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Your corn patch is fairly compact and your cheapest route is probably to fence it with small mesh chicken wire or even a 1/4 inch mesh wire if it is squirrels or some other small varmint getting the corn. I have used a 3 wire electric fence for years and it keeps the coons, skunks, cats, and dogs out of the corn without fail as long as the fencer is turned on. We only have squirrels in the towns and up in the mountains, so I've never had to deal with them. However, the fencer will probably cost $50 plus the cost of wire, insulators, and posts. With a 3 wire fence, the first wire from the ground is hot and placed about 4" above the ground. The second wire is 4" above that and grounded to the stakes, then the 3rd wire is 4" above that and hot. It will hit anything bigger than a bunny. Deer figure out the wire doesn't go very high and last year I extended 4 more hot wires about a foot apart to get a 5 foot tall fence. After they got surprised the first night and broke the wire, they stayed out of the corn the rest of the season. Deer could jump a 5' fence, but I don't think they like to since the corn is right on the other side and it is kind of like trying to polevault into a bunch of trees, it is just awkward and unpleasant when you don't have a good clear landing pad. Electric fences are unpleasant but won't hurt the animal unless it gets tangled in the wire for an extended time.
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Thanks! The chicken wire (or I'd use the smaller chick wire) is a good thought. I just don't know if it would keep my demon out. We have no evidence of rabbits around here, and I know there are squirrels, crows, and also "sandy mounders" - the pocket gophers - but I don't think they come up out of the ground for feeding. We do have foxes in the area - they would also likely be more damaging, I think. I'm still hoping for other input?? <:- eileen>
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The pesky squirrels like to mess around in my garden too. They 'plant' black walnuts that sprout and grow roots a foot deep before they show any foliage above ground. I have to dig holes down to china to get them out. One thing I found helpful is either landscape fabric or a very thick layer of newspaper covering every possible inch of soil, and then some mulch on top of it to make it look nicer. If the squirrels dig down through the mulch and hit the fabric/newspaper layer, they give up and plant their darn walnuts elsewhere. Of course, if your squirrels are doing other things in addition to digging, the fabric/newspaper wont help much.
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gator_rider2
17 years ago
pellet rifle with 1000 ft per second are do squirrel pole search on google. Squirrel pole fastest way.
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kiwinut
17 years ago
Not sure how well this would go over out your way, but one idea is to build a big "squirrel-a-pult" and launch a few out towards Alcatraz Island. This way you reduce the squirrel problem and help save the great white sharks at the same time, ;').
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buckster
17 years ago
Howdy,

I have ground squirrels. They strip my trees big time. I don't like posions and I don't have time for pellet guns.

SO I asked my self what are ground squirrels? There rats with a fluffy tail. Bingo. Rat traps. Put peanut butter in a baggie and wrap it around the trigger on a rat trap. Killed about 50 last year. I had to they were stripping my trees.

Good luck
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Embothrium
17 years ago
Can't beat an alert, agile and committed dog. 'Sharecroppers' clear right out, stay away. Deer, rabbits, squirrels - you name them - prey animals r-r-r-really don't seem to want to get caught by canines, for some reason.

One time my dear departed little 20 lb. dog caught an eastern gray squirrel right before it got up the oak tree, instantly breaking its back and killing it. Maybe that kind of thing is why they don't want to get caught.
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calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
17 years ago
We have tree squirrels and I blamed them for getting my fruit, though I never saw one do it. Last year I had a run in with rats in my greenhouse. After baiting for rats I had no more fruit loss. I am baiting again this year. Al
0
Embothrium
17 years ago
Wharf rats are arboreal, like squirrels. Climb fruit trees and help themselves, just like squirrels.
0

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