Pain in the Maha-rse

[BMc]

My Maha tree is grafted onto dwarf stock but is still a vigorous upright grower, but bears rather lightly. Well, all but one branch, which has always given as much as the rest of the tree. I went out to water the plants today as I can smell brushfire on the breeze, and I found my favorite branch, covered in mid sized mangoes, on the ground. We've been having high wind for a few days, but my money is on the bats. They've already ruined the stone fruit crops, taken over the best papaya and now are taking down the mangoes. The mangoes were all bagged and it seems a bat landed on the branch to have a shot at the mesh bags and broke the branch. What a pain in the bum and I may install some black wires above the tree to protect the few that remain...

I should also mention that I bag all fruit in my yard, but even then the bats can suck the flesh off a nectarine through an organza bag!

[bangkok]

That's a real bummer, but that thin branch was heavy loaded though. Also you guys have huge bats. My tree's are also flowering but the grafts not (yet). Maha is the fastest grower for me.

Did you try to eat them green? Or you can pickle them maybe so at least you can eat them.

[Mike T]

BMc I know you couldn't stay away from the spectacled flying foxes when you came up here and those grey headed ones down there seem to have taken a shine to you. Maybe you are a bat magnet.
My papaya trees have all their leaves wrecked after bat action to add insult to injury. The old take a bite out of each green fruit trick is the one that tickles me.

[bangkok]

Is there no way to scare them bats friendly? In Holland they hang strips of shiny aluminium in the tree's against crows. Or hang a dead crow on a stick. Or they have a machine that bangs like a shotgun every now and then in the orchards.

If they ruined all my fruits then the war was on. Put chilipaste on all the fruits if they get them anyway stick needles in the fruits, or superglue, just annoy them as much as you can.

You bag them allready, maybe you need stronger bags? Or metal mosquitonet bags? Or bigger bags around the whole branch or whole tree? Have fireworks ready to send some firearrow after them, buy something that annoys their sonar system, i would get them one day.

[BMc]

If you get caught messing with the bats you can get a few thousand dollar fine. Most bats are actually quite rare in the wild. They all move into the city where fruit abounds. Sonar blasts can land you in jail. Government moves on colonies that are getting out of hand.

I thought the fruit would thin themselves and if I did it I'd pick the wrong ones anyways...

[TnTrobbie]

Bummer. My condolences. 

[Doglips]

I saw a tree chock full of bats in Cairns, they are huge.

We think we have airborn problems with birds in the US, that has to be worse.
Obstructing access is the best I can think of. 

[Ethan]

A gent in FL. made mango cages out of metal mesh that had around an 1/8" square grid pattern.  He created a cylinder with separate top and bottom pieces that he zip tied together around his mangoes.  I seemed to work well at protecting the fruits while letting them breath and grow.  Maybe next season?  If you have spare mango rootstock or want to cocktail one of your trees, you ought to try grafting some of that scion, it seemed to perform better than the rest of your tree.

A friend from Aus. was mentioning a certain bat's guano getting in the horse's water trough and causing serious diseases in the horse?  If you had horses you didn't have fruit trees anymore?

[BMc]

Yes, the Hendra Virus caused many of the great mangoe trees to be chopped down a few years back. Two true giants in my fathers horse paddock were leveled and many of the massive park trees and those planted in the early 1900s along racecourse avenues were destroyed to try to stop the horses and bats mixing. It made light work of horses and was named after a Brisbane suburb. But there haven't been any new cases for a while. It's pathway is from bats to horses to people and has killed humans...

[zands]

I saw a tree chock full of bats in Cairns, they are huge.

We think we have airborn problems with birds in the US, that has to be worse.
Obstructing access is the best I can think of.

.

I'll take birds over bats any day. Bats are creepy and can carry disease. A TV show showed (one kind at least) roosting and breeding in a cave filled with bat guano (many feet deep) which repelled all other creatures from preying on them. The bats were immune to the guano fumes

[Doglips]

The problem with caging the fruit is that the elephants will still land on the branches and break them try to get to the fruit.