My advice is to stick it out for a while. Sweet cherries take a while to fruit. It may take a couple more years before your trees are in full production. But sooner or later, with that many cherry trees, you are going to have enough fruit to feed the critters and yourself too. And there is nothing better than cherries right off the tree. I live on the West Coast, far from you, so maybe others will have better advice to give, but I think your critter problems are, if not solvable, at least controllable. I use Mylar tape to scare away birds. It isn't foolproof, but it deters enough of them so that I can get a crop. Some people use bird netting, which is probably more effective but may require you to disentangle the occasional bird from the netting. You can kill aphids and white flies organically by spraying occasionally with a mixture consisting of 1 Tbsp. of Dawn liquid dish soap and 1 cup of vegetable oil per gallon of water. I don't have a squirrel problem. I will defer to others about how to solve that. Some of the solutions I've seen on this site involve the use of controls that aren't permitted in populated areas, but there are perhaps other things you can try, and maybe the squirrels aren't your principal problem. In other words, maybe if you deter the birds and kill the aphids, you can share with the squirrels. Don't give up yet. Nimzo

I just ordered a four pound bag of Kocide 3000. I do remember about three years ago, Glenn from RI suggested I use it. Why didn't I? Olpea you're on! Lets see how this will work. I found it on the internet from a farm supply company. As I write tonight, we have the tail end of a southern front coming through. It is pouring as it did yesterday, all day today and tomorrow. This is supposed to slow on sunday and start again on Monday. By tuesday it will definitely be time to spray again. The only trees enjoying this rain are my key lime and meyer lemons. Scott I too have used Fungonil and it has never done a thing to a leaf or fruit. No burn whatsoever. Guess I was lucky. It just kills me to see my trees in stress mode. I hope my Shui Mi Tao is all right through this miserable weather. The Shui Mi Tao and the 'Early Crawford' are the only two peach trees that still have some leaves because they were planted this spring and have been growing vigorously. Horrible feeling. . . when there is nothing you can do but wait. Mrs. G Thanks for listening!

If they're doing aerial spraying, probably. But if not, no, the fertilizers and pesticides won't "get mixed in" your food crops. I suppose there's some possibility of cross-pollination from GM crops. If you're worried about that, then don't grow corn or soybeans in your own garden. Raised beds won't make any difference for any of this. That being said, you may have some difficulty maintaining a healthy population of good bugs while surrounded by a sea of poison and poison-resistent super bugs. And, too, wells and groundwater in heavily agricultural areas are often, er, interesting (get your well checked regularly).

By swarm do you mean they just hang out at the tree all day or are the hornets building a nest in it? Do you only want to cut it down because of this? Is it in good health otherwise? If they are building a nest. You can do one of two things, try some sort of chemical or orange oil to wipe them out, OR, get a big garbage bag, put it around the nest, cut the branch they are attached to and seal up the bag and leave it in the sun for about 3 days. That should bake them.