The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: clannewton on July 11, 2017, 06:56:15 PM
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This collusion conspiracy may have more "teeth" than the Trump/Russian collusion conspiracy. Squirrels, who are creatures of nature, with great smelling senses should be able to determine what is a ripe mango. But contrary to that logic they raid my tree's pulling down unripe mangoes, take a little bite and move on to the next unripe mango. They might find one ripe mango after five or six attempts on the unripe ones. If I leave them on the ground, the night crew(raccoons) come in and polish off the unripe mangoes left by the squirrels. This is definitely nature working together, aka colluding! My evidence in the picture below.
(https://s17.postimg.cc/juyq3l5ej/20170711_171853.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/juyq3l5ej/)
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They are doing the same exact thing to my mangoes...knocking down green ones with a small bite and going to the next one. It is very, very frustrating :'(
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Same with my Valencia pride, only 7 fruits remaining. I just tied a couple of TomCat rat poison on the branches where the fruits are and they were gone the following day but I did not see any dead squirrels. I wouldn't call it collusion, the squirrels are merely donating to the racoon foundation.
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Squirrels are crafty and evil. They do this on purpose to annoy you. I have a real problem here with squirrels on everything but the mangoes. They haven't discovered the mangoes yet. They test and reject them when they are unripe, but they don't know about the delicious ripe flavor. As soon as they discover the ripe mango, I won't have anymore mangoes. When they find something they like you can't stop them.
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After 18 years of battling the ground squirrels with live traps and the Rat Zapper I finally resorted to bait stations and "Wilco Ground Squirrel Bait". It has been a complete success and my yard has been virtually pest free except for the activity around the bait stations which I placed at the far end of my yard.
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I'm having the same issue here in socal. It's between squirrels and possums on my avocado and mango. I didn't see any squirrels in my area until the recent years. So I always thought it's just the possums doing the job. Guess not, by looking at the small teeth marks on the fruits. Squirrels have been cleaning out my macadamia nuts for past 3 years. As we speak, they are working on this year's crops relentlessly:'( They had tried the unripe lychee few weeks ago and left it alone for now. I'm really afraid when they discover later....
What type of squirrels you guys are seeing in your area? We have Eastern Fox squirrels, which can be controlled without permit. I'm about to make a trap like this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7XZ8Yr6x8g. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7XZ8Yr6x8g.) Anyone here tried it? Or I should just get a pellet gun :-\
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Those squirrels and racoons are the real "bad hombres". Build a wall, that's supposed to solve everything! ;D
Seriously though, happy not to have to battle squirrels here. When i lived in California ground squirrels were the worst. Here the main varmint are wild pigs. Pigs can damage not only your crop but also your trees! But "easy" to deal with in comparison once you fence your property. Just a very big initial expense.
Good luck to everyone safe guarding all your fruit bounty!
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I have the same problem, only it is strictly a raccoon thing. They are taking about ten a day. I finally get a decent crop and the critters are robbing me blind. They started by going after the ripe ones, but once I started picking them earlier, now they are taking the green ones!!!! They can be so annoying!!!
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I had successes with traps but my problem is that I need to find a way to dispose them afterward; this usually means getting up on your vehicle and relocate them somewhere...one at a time. >:(
A bait station with bait seems to be a better solution for me, since I don't need to worry of disposing them, and apparently they'll die away from your house.
I made my self a few bait stations, using 4" ABS pipe but open on both ends, I secured a few baits in the middle of the pipe. (got this idea from someone's review at Amazon's). The squirells/Rats can go in and out freely: and noticing that they have been chewing on them!
When my supply of "Tomcat Rat" baits are exhausted I will get the Wilco squirel bait instead..., thanks Jeff!
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Did anybody try with a ferret? They are skilled predators, do really great hunting rabbits here in Spain.
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Same issue here. Maybe they took the seed to plant their own. In a few years I'll raid the woods and eat theirs and not clean up the evidence.
(https://s2.postimg.cc/f9cv5iar9/IMG_1413.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/f9cv5iar9/)
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Did anybody try with a ferret? They are skilled predators, do really great hunting rabbits here in Spain.
Don't ferrets also kill all the other wildlife and fowl, like chickens and ducks?
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Thanks to my dog, I don't have a squirrel / raccoon problem. I have a small bird problem, the birds are attracted to the colorful mangos, like Glenn and Sunrise.
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Between my brothers property and mine(we are neighbors) we have trapped and removed over 40+ squirrel, more than a dozen raccoons and a dozen possums. We probably removed at least this many last year also. But the odor of the ripening mangoes is causing them to ignore the bait in the traps and just go after the mangoes at this point. Trying to use an air gun takes to much time and they almost have a sixth sense of when they are being hunted and become very sparse. As quick as we remove them, it appears other squirrels from other territories move into the vacancy and I am sure the odor of over 100 mango trees with ripening fruits is like a flame to a moth. They probably smell the fruit several miles out.
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The only way to keep pests out is netting. It's the most distasteful task I have but without it my vineyard would lose thousands of pounds of fruit in 2 days. I live in the country with coons, fox, rabbits, birds. In spite of netting the word has gone out in the bird community and my nets are now covered with mockingbirds thinking they might be able to get in.
If you have pest pressures, don't plant fruit unless you can net.
Tieing the bottoms together is the most laborious and important task. A bird will find a 1" hole left at a stake or vine. I use bread clips and wire ties.
Some pecan growers station bloodhounds in their orchards for squirrels. Terriers and hounds are apparently good dogs for this.
(https://s14.postimg.cc/n1ol3yxod/Netting_July2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/n1ol3yxod/)
(https://s3.postimg.cc/y0c17k1gf/Netting_Done.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/y0c17k1gf/)
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My biggest problems this year as hardest to get rid of = Birds. Partially Eaten Bird fruit on the ground where I live is typically a completely round circle of fruit missing vs. squirrels etc. ragged cuts and not a rounded near circle. I have seen mockingbirds causing damage but my #1 enemy here is woodpeckers. They attack the mangos frequently.
Any max. 1200 ft/sec. pellet gun single stroke is fairly quite. Squirrels and birds run/fly when they see this mango defense weapon.
Best time to catch squirrels and birds trying to steal mangos is early morning.
Coons and possums nighttime traps. Then just gently persuade them to go on a trip in the dump truck to the city land fill.
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I have tried using a squirrel feeder device placed in the open and while they are feeding they become prime targets for hawks, the device consists if a spring loaded cable hung from a metal shepherds staff pole. At the ground end of the cable are two eye screws where you screw on dried ears of corn that hangs a foot above the ground. This makes the squirrel stand up to eat the dried corn and is so distracted the are not aware of a hawk swooping down. voila! Nature at work. I bought all pieces of the device from Amazon.
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Did anybody try with a ferret? They are skilled predators, do really great hunting rabbits here in Spain.
Don't ferrets also kill all the other wildlife and fowl, like chickens and ducks?
Probably yes, I was thinking of a backyard rather than a farm. Ferrets are very effective hunting animals like rats and rabbits. My guess is that just the very presence of a ferret in the garden would make run away any mammal smaller than a raccoon. They also have a characteristic scent that probably squirrels and other rodents know well.