Near as I can tell squirrels are nature's Johnny Appleseeds, except with nuts. The bury caches with no real methods to find them other than their nose so plenty go unfound to sprout into trees.

But just think how good you were to "share" with them, 14:120 is a fair share don't you think?
(Sorry, I had to pretend to be one of those people. I'm all for you attempting to kill every last one of them. If a gun is a real option I suggest a 12ga with low brass #6 and a modified choke. That should take care of quite a few before they catch on.)

Yes, I believe everything has a purpose-even the lowly squirrel-But enough is enough!
I suppose whatever used to feed on squirrels is now gone and that leaves man to restore the balance-or else the unthinkable-No Fruit!

Good Luck!

I feel your pain! They got my entire first crop of apricots! I only had about 15 apricots, but they got every one. I've got plaster of Paris and peanut butter all ready for this winter. I plan to feed them bon-bons and I won't feel a bit bad about it. I'm very much an animal lover, but now I even rejoice when I see one hit by a car! Loosing a crop is devastating!

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrels ignore my bon bons

meyermike:

I, like milehighgirl and thousands of other orchardists, also feel your pain.

There's basically three ways that I know of to control squirrels:

1.) bon-bons. I have no personal experience with this method but many say it works. See milehighgirl's link.

2.) high velocity lead. A .22 varmint rifle has been proven successful but is absolutely not an option in urban locations. A high velocity pellet gun has also been proven successful but should not be used in urban areas. In many cities it is unlawful. One needs lotsa space for a high velocity pellet gun such as one would find in a rural or semi-rural area.

3.) trap and put down humanely. I've had success with this method. When I got my place seven years ago, the battle was joined with the squirrels. I'd get 7 a week. After one year, the population in my neighborhood was reduced to the point where I'd get 2 or 3 a week only in the spring and fall. That is where it stands today. And I keep my crops. They may get one or two avocados or plums but I can live with that. See the excellent link below for a dedicated website on squirrel control. Read the "squirrel pages" in the top menu before you post on the board.

Squirrels are easy to trap once you "get the hang of it."

Forget any other method of control - no matter what is said or claimed.

Tony

Here is a link that might be useful: John Fasoldt's Squirrel Board

See below for another recent thread on how to trap squirrels. I describe the Kania traps there which have worked well for me.

To add to Tonys remarks above, pellet guns can in fact work in urban areas; to my knowledge the only place they are illegal is NYC. One must be more careful however to make sure there is a backdrop behind every shot. That is frustrating at times when a squirrel is up on the telephone wire with one of your peaches in its mouth but you can't shoot. The best way to shoot is to bait an area by a house window or door with food, and make sure there is a good backdrop for shooting in that spot. I got this idea from Jellyman and it has worked well for me. But, shooting takes a lot of time since you need to actually be there. Traps work 24/7 for you.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: trapping squirrels

My town nor any town around here allows one to discharge pellet guns in city limits.

For the rural gun the reason I use a 223 varmint rifle is to save meat. To do safely even in rural areas requires experience and reloading ability or the willingness to pass up a lot of shots.
A shotgun is much cheaper to buy and feed plus the loads can be tailored off the shelf to be safe in more areas.

Hmm, thats interesting. Now that I think of it, in NYC you can't even have one in your possession, let alone fire it. At some point I checked my local laws and there are no restrictions I could find but there do seem to be quite a few cities/towns, and some counties, that disallow discharge of pellet guns. Many of the restrictions have an exception for "defense of property" which sounds like it would apply for squirrels stealing peaches.

Scott

What's wrong with this picture?

The amount of guns in kids hands on the streets, are enough to make your pants fall off, and yet we would get in trouble for shooting a squirrel with a pellet gun?

By the way, the day after posting this, everyone of my othere peaches I was hoping just might be left alone, were stolen and eaten. I should of went with my gut instinct and picked them. Wait! I did find just one,hidden under some leaves that I don't think it or theye will find..Let's see..

I have to disaggree with anyone who makes a blanket statement of what will or won't work. My squirrels can be trapped for a while but then they get wise, at least during a major infestation and refuse to go into the traps-
They even figure out the cantalever traps that don't require that they go inside of anything. I mispelled it, I know, but these are lethal traps that strangle squirrels when they try to remove peanuts from a pin.)

If the trees have at least 4' of trunk before scaffolds, you can often stop them with enough tangle trap spread over stretch wrap. Google Great Lakes IPM for supplies and use the tropical formula. If they are willing to climb even while getting gook on themselves extend the gook a further length. At some point that stuff will probably kill them.

I have often stopped squirrels that have already removed fruit by using this tactic.

I also have used electric fencing with great results. The constant charge chargers may be best for this purpose. They are plug-in units designed for pet control primarily. Pulsating units send less than one charge a second and some squirrels may even make it over 3 wires without getting zapped. Maybe peanut butter smeared on the wires would help.

Tony, why are you so confident in your absolute knowledge of efficacy of squirrel control methods? Wildlife always surprises me and I can only make suggestions that may or may not work. I protect fruit on scores of sites and if I don't make harvests happen I'm out of business. What works on one site sometimes doesn't work on another- that's how it is with all pest control.

harvestman,

I wish I could afford to put you up in a nice hotel here for a few days, and pay you to rid these critters for me..

Thanks for your input!!;-)

Once an animal finds food somewhere they will keep returning to the scene until the food is gone. They do not have a concept of sharing like some people would have you believe.
I don't know if peaches ripen off the tree but if they do that is one fool proof option to save that final peach.

I assume since you said that about pellet guns that means you are in town and the shotgun isn't a real option.

harvestman:

In 2002, having lost all my fruit, I undertook to protect my harvests from squirrels. I read everything I could find on the web about squirrels and eventually stumbled upon this forum and John Fasoldt's squirrel board. I read these two avidly - and still do. I started with a BB gun because I'm in an urban area and didn't even know about trapping. Moderate success. Then I purchased two traps and found they worked just as GW posters and John said they would. It took a year to get the population down. But ever since I keep all my crops. I'll take a rough guess of 600 squirrels in 7 years.

During those 7 years I experienced, read and learned quite a bit about squirrels and their habits, their curiosities, their vulnerabilities and their cleverness. I'll take a rough guess at 150 posts about squirrels on GW Fruit & Orchard since 2005 and maybe another 150 posts on John's board. And I'll add another 100 websites such as other gardening forums, universities, wikis and the like.

It is from this body of knowledge that I spoke.

Your comments caused me to think that my first hand experience is limited to the Eastern Fox squirrel and is further limited to my area, let's say, L.A. County. However, I found that what John and his posters said about the Gray squirrels in the east (he's a professional exterminator in New Jersey) applied to the Fox squirrels here. So I began to think in terms of common behaviors of several species of squirrel.

In seven years, I have not found that the squirrels have "gotten wise" to much of anything in my area. The sole exception is that if they are caught in a live trap and released, they are then "trap shy" and are difficult to trap again. So I suppose our experiences differ in this regard. Maybe some of that Ivy League has rubbed off on your Gray squirrels in the east. But here in the west, or I should say, my backyard, I found that 600 squirrels behaved in generally the same way. That way was just as John and his posters described in the east.

I make no statements nor claims about any pests other than squirrels. Indeed, I still have great trouble with possums in my backyard. From your posts it seems to me you have much broader experience than I have with regard to many different kinds of pests in many different locations.

My post was aimed at the relative newcomer experiencing loss of harvest due to squirrels. It was not so much directed at experienced people like yourself or jellyman or scottsmith. I have empathy for the newcomer who spends much time, money and hardwork only to find squirrels taking it all.

These newbies face an internet loaded with all manner of gimmicks for squirrel control: flashing lights, high frequency audio, olfactory repellants, fake owls and so on. I've read so many posts of disappointments in the failure of these devices. I've also read many posts about successes. These two aggregates of many people's experiences combined with my own experience led me to attempt to save newbies from loss of time, money, work and harvests by cautioning them to stay away from all these things. I did not intend to caution them away from techniques advocated by professionals such as yourself. I thought, tell them to stick with the simple - the tried and true.

None of this is intended to deny your successes with other techniques. You professionals are in a different class than newcomers.

For example, there is a growing number of urban newcomers whose interest in growing food has been sparked into life starting, say, five years ago. They, like me, are backyard growers who have been "trained" to cut newly planted bareroot trees off at 36" in order to develop low scaffolds. So in our case, the tanglefoot technique doesn't apply. But this does not deny the validity, as you mentioned, of using tanglefoot on trees with 48" before the first scaffold.

I did paint with very broad brush strokes. But I did so with the newbie in mind. I probably should have qualified my comments in this way.

Despite some differing experiences, I think you and I are united in trying to help people grow their own food and keep it from the critters.

I've been a bit rambling here, but it is my attempt to answer your question regarding why I am confident to speak about squirrel control.

Tony

I have both Fox and Gray, they are quite a bit different as far as hunting goes. I don't know about as far as stealing fruit and trapping goes.

So far, it seems that the bon-bons have cleared up my squirrel problem. I hope they are really gone and not just avoiding me! I did just lose all my late peaches, Belle of Georgia. I went out to pick them Saturday morning and all were gone. The trees looked OK, no broken limbs as I would expect from raccoon work, so it is possible there are some really sneaky squirrels out there. However, I trapped two small possums last night and I bet they were the culprits. BTW, possums are usually easy to trap. I bait Hav-a-Heart type traps with dry cat food. All the coons and possums around here are used to eating my cat's food, so it is an excellent bait. I did not have a heart with the possums, even though it meant I was late getting to work because I had to take them down to my bone yard. I have a really healthy flock of vultures in my neighborhood. The count this year is three coons and three possums. I trapped thirty coons and maybe five possums the two previous years, but I also set out the traps more often.

Chuck

Tony, I'm sorry if my comment came off as an indictment. I just wanted to stress that wildlife is very unpredictable. I have seen several occassions on different sites where traps just didn't work and I do a lot of trapping.

I developed my tangletrap method because many of my clients aren't going to tend traps and destroy animals anyway and I won't do it for them. At first I hoped the alluminum flashing would do the trick but it only stopped coons and possums.

When I have tried traps on my property its usually been when the squirrels are completely epidemic and wild-eyed starving. They see other animals trapped and they learn.

I have had success with traps when the numbers aren't so overwhelming.