I've been facing terrible squirrel pressure on my fruit trees this year and have lost all my peaches and most of my apples. I rather doubt that running electric wire through the tree will help, and think that you will have problems if the wire is touching the tree. I have found that squirrels (I don't yet have racoon problems) will tear apart both plastic sandwich bags and the more durable cloth fruit bags to get at the fruit. Netting does seem to help, however. I'm using the bird netting you get at Home Depot. I suspect the squirrels are worried about getting tangled in it. This works ok on smallish, slow growing trees, but with a peach tree you are going to have a lot of branches growing through the netting, and possibly a large tree to net to start with. If I had an enclosed yard (I don't), I'd look into a dog. If I lived in the country, I'd look into a rifle. Scott has mentioned Kania traps for squirrels; I don't know if they work for racoons, and there are of course issues of legality here. I await a brilliant solution to these problems for the backyard fruit grower.

Hi Genie9, sorry about your tree loss. Probably just an annoying bit of detail to you, but what are being referred to as mice are very likely actually voles. But hey, they look like mice, and they sure do eat a lot of plant bark. As the gentlemen above have suggested, it is not too late to protect what hasn't been completely girdled. Since you've put considerable effort into this planting, you may as well go the extra step and try to save what you can. Incidentally, rabbit damage will resemble small branches very cleanly cut off, almost as if by a hand pruner. But that bark damage is indeed voles. +oM

I understand that trees don't mind a bit more acidity than herbaceous plants & veggies - & it shouldn't be to difficult to check on that. What kinds of fruit trees are they? The important rule is not to pile mulch (&/or soil) up against the trunk of any tree, as this can lead to disease.

My understanding is squirrels can jump almost 5 feet. In your opinion/experience what would be the appropriate height for the first limb to begin fruitnut? For example my peach tree which was planted in November is only 2 ft tall and was pruned to that height. I am going to have branching from beneath the cut. This complicates things for getting a single trunk up to 3-4 feet.