Yes...they will strip an apple tree if you let them. Pears not so much, at least in my yard.

Last year, I had far more Asian pears than apples. Squirrels were too busy taking a lot of the pears so they left apples alone. I saw it with my eyes, squirrels climbing up my pear trees, taking pears in their mouth and off they went. I have only 3-4 squirrels (I think) but they stripped lots of my pears.

I read many posts on this forum for the past 4 years about how to get rid of squirrels. It seems almost nothing could deter them. Killing seems to be the only sure way that works. I have not had a nerve to kill them yet. Maybe, this is the year!!!

Hopefully, you don't have a groundhog or many birds, too.

Ditto on the Asian pears. Red squirrels took all of mine between June and late August. I literally had Zero at harvest time.

This year, they're going bye bye. Already got a couple with rat traps. I hold a grudge, they caused almost $1000 worth of damage to the ventilation system of my SUV by stuffing it full of walnuts, chewed the wiring under the hood of my parked pickup in the course of one day, and have chewed through my vinyl siding and wall to get into my garage.

What's funny BUT NOT FUNNY is a squirrel taking a fruit, biting into it, spitting it out, and throwing the piece of fruit away. And then repeating the damn process til the tree is stripped.

My apples are usually safe while the squirrels busy themselves with the Kieffer pears. I am happy to sacrifice the Kieffers to this cause, but this year I'm hoping for Honeysweets, which is another matter.

I think it would be fair to say that any tree fruit is game for squirrels. They hit my peach tree HARD last year, while mostly leaving the apples alone, the year before they stripped the apple trees...while both years they never touched my Seckel pears. They haven't found my sweet cherries yet or seem to bother the plums...yet.

They take our apples when they are still small (about golf-ball size) and green. And yes, they take a few bites and drop the rest. And then the deer come and clean them up.

The blasted things like seckel pears. especially when the pears are anout 1" diameter and rock hard. i think they chew on them to grind down their teeth. so for they have left the asian pears and apples alone but they do test the peaches. they leave my apricots alone but my neighbor complains bitterly.

one squirrel wrapped in two strips bacon. an inch of cooking sherry and a cup of brandy in a crock pot.

Then throw away the squirrel and drink the rest.

They took all my seckel pears last year also, well before they were ready. I found a lot of the pears in the yard with a little nibble taken.

Alex

The deer strip my peaches. The catbirds like my cherries, the chipmunks fancy the blueberries. The racoons like the plums and last year I found out groundhogs not only love strawberries, but can indeed climb fruit trees. I have not had one squirrel caught in my fruits. go figure.

Thankss everyone. It sounds like we are in for a battle with the critters.

denninmi, what type of rat traps are you going to use? I see some "single door rigid live traps which are cages for catching mice, rats and squirrels" listed on eBay.

LD

on the ground near the trees?

We put ziploc bags on with the bottom cut out or foot sox, available at Home ORchard Society. Squirrels eat very few of these.
John S
PDX OR

laurie-

I use those havahart type traps..the smaller ones. They work great if you use the right bait. Last year I used nuts (walnuts, pecans) and would wedge them into the mesh of the trap and that worked great.

I'd recommend a Kania trap with sunflower seed.

Time to take back your yard!

They are evil! Last year they got around the four baffels on my peach tree then chewed thru the hardware bags I had tied to a couple hundred peaches 2 weeks before ripening. They ate thru four or five hundred ziplok bags on my plum and apple trees. They also ate all of the bartlett, half of the keiffers and most of my Asian pears. It is very frustrating year after year after year. Tree rats won't share.
Tom

Baffles are the only thing I've found to stop them, it's discouraging to see they can get around them.

Has anyone tried any of these:

1. electric fence http://squirrel-x.com/electricfences.htm#electric

2. Critter repellant http://squirrel-x.com/repellent.htm#shake

3. Homemade repellant: Mix one pkg. egg yoke egg beaters with a gallon of water and spray everything with it.

Thanks.

LD

I'm going to anchor some expanded trigger rat traps in my trees if I can find them. This type of trap also works well for mice. Squirrels are harvesting my apricots and strawberries long before they are ripe. Unfortunately if we are too successful they will be declared endangered and untouchable.

One thing to consider is the species of squirrel. I find that the grays are the worst offenders. They seem to be pushing out the fox squirrels, here.

Squirrels make for very nice pelts, although they tend to be rather greasy and gamey tasting...

...what? If you're going to kill 'em, don't waste the good parts!

They also eat green sweet cherries, and let the stems fall on my head.

I love squirrels, let them eat whatever they want, given I don't live in a penthouse in NYC, I get that I share my land with critters... they give far more pleasure than problems, even when they dig little holes in my lawn, but whatever, queens not coming to tea y'know? :)

I hate squirrels, they'll strip a fruit tree faster than you can harvest it. They don't let the fruit get ripe before they attack.

Sara,

Have you tried any of these methods yourself? If it works, where do you live? I would consider moving to your area.

Fox urine and mint did not work for me. I used to buried mothballs around the bases of my peach trees to prevent borers but did not think it worked on borers. Not convinced it will work with sqirts, either.

Heard a few people use hot pepper spray on fruit, not on tree trunks with some success.

Most of us have been very frustrated with squirts doing serious damage on fruit. Most do not kill them with glee. Some of the comments could be made in jest.

After years of losing the battle against squirrels, I finally have a full harvest from my 2 espaliered apple trees, unmolested by the furry-tailed terrorists. Here's a recounting of my failures and ultimate success:

Squirrel Defense Year 1: ziplock bags on each apple once they were quarter-sized. This kept the coddling moths at bay, but the squirrels just laughed and thanked me for packing their lunch. I found the torn and empty bags and partially eaten apples all around my yard. FAILURE.

Squirrel Defense Year 2: put cloth cotton drawstring bags on each apple once they were quarter-sized. Where possible, I even tied the drawstrings to branches. The squirrels still stripped a majority of apples from the tree leaving the bagged apples around the yard, or left with broken stems hanging by the bag drawstrings from branches. FAILURE.

Squirrel Defense Year 3: covered the entire espalier with 22% white shade netting in early summer. The squirrels had already begun filching the very unripened apples even before I put up the netting, and because I wasn't vigilant about sealing the perimeter, they occasionally got inside the netting and took about half the apples. PARTIAL SUCCESS.

Squirrel Defense Year 4: as soon as the apples were quarter sized, I covered the entire espalier with the 22% shade netting, sealing the netting perimeter with clothespins every 12". Squirrels didn't bother. VICTORY!

A couple notes:

I put a narrow strip of chicken wire on top of the espalier to discourage squirrels from running along the top (which they had been doing before) and tearing up the netting.

I'm still bagging apples, not for squirrel protection but against coddling moths and other insect invaders. I soaked the bags first in a Surround kaolin clay slurry and somewhere between 90 - 95% of my apples are unblemished. Next year, I'm going to use try-on footies instead of cloth bags for better sunlight penetration. Even with the combination of 22% shade cloth and cotton bags, however, the apples still had a lot of red color.

Tree Rats work within the season :

Spring - they eat my plums and strawberries

Summer - they eat my peaches & blueberries

Late Summer/Fall - they eat my apples and pears

Right now they're working on my neighbor's pecan trees.

We need more hawks around here!

The only thing that works is a 6 ft piece of stove pipe put around the trunk. If your tree is old and has a large trunk, maybe put two together. I do this with my bird feeders as well and the squirrels can't climb up it no matter how hard they try.

WHAT? I've seen one climb that small rod that holds a shepherds hook. He went so fast it would make your head swim, then sat up there and teased the dog.

Sure...smooth sheetmetal works, that rod is too skinny....put a stove pipe around.