Maybe be patient. Where were the woodpeckers for the past 23 years? If next "winter" is not warm like our recent ones, perhaps the birds will be somewhere else when your mangos are ripening. Just guessing.

Or, maybe 2020 will be Hurricane Year and all our yards and gardens will be redesigned by nature.

How about pruning the Glenn way back so you have two smaller trees and much less fruit to deal with in these really hot days.

Thanks Istropic, I like the idea of a severe pruning on the Glenn, been mulling that over for a few weeks now. However, I don't think that will completely solve my dilemma.

Just now a neighbor mentioned that he heard of something called a Woodpecker Outdoor Ultrasonic Repeller that's solar powered,...just stick it in the ground midway between both trees. He has no 1st hand experience that it works though, - would be nice to hear from someone who actually tried it.

However, if I do keep one or both, - they definitely will be pruned way back.

Wow! I had no idea woodpeckers liked fruit. I thought they ate only insects.

I think yours might be a red-bellied , not red-headed woodpecker. The red headed woodpecker's entire head is red.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-headed_Woodpecker/species-compare/64995071

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/overview

After reading that site's info that they've been reported to drink from hummingbird feeders, I'm wondering if it's going after the sweet moisture in the fruit?

Yes Carol, I believe you are right,...they are red-bellied woodpeckers for sure. I wish I had a dollar for every mango these guys have mutilated in the last 2 months !

Plenty of the Redheads here. Wonder if they are who hit some green tomatoes. Mangoes (none ripe) are intact. Now I know to include woodpeckers as suspects slhould mutilation occur.

That's rough Joe. Wood peckers are almost impossible to deal with short of shooting.

That's why Glenn, this may be my last year of trying to uphold my status as the # 1 Mango Man in Englewood, Florida. Over the years I have dealt successfully with ; Fruit Flies, Raccoons ( talk about evil ), Squirrels and Rabbits.

Where the hell did these lightning-fast ( I call 'em " My F - 15's " ) woodpeckers come from ? I vaguely recall the time about 8 yrs ago, when I tried to grow a couple of small Florida Peach Trees here. Had a horrible time with the Kama - Kazi birds swooping down which didn't take me long to decide Peaches were not a good idea,..here anyway,..and for a naive New Yorker yet. I have no recollection at all if any of those birds were red breasted woodpeckers. Definitely know however, that since then have had no problems whatsoever with birds, of any species.

Had a rare ray of sunshine this morning, - sprung out of bed at 06:30 AM, looked out my rear bedroom window at the Glenn tree ( did they name it after you ? LOL ), - and saw three ( 3 ) large/pink/ripe Glenn's laying in the grass under that tree. Popped my flip flops on and raced out to discover all were untouched,...three pink virgins under that tree,..a rare treat for me this year !

Am not ready to throw in the towel,..will wait till season is over in mid July and re-access my situation.

Thank's for the support.

Regarding the mutilateds only : roughly what percentage of the mutilateds remained hanging?

There are NO mutilated mangoes still hanging on either tree. What happens, - once a red-breasted woodpecker attacks a juicy fruit, - like a jackhammer, they fly away and leave a juicy round hole up to 1 - 1 1/2 " deep. If the fruit doesn't fall off after that, the one-of-a- kind scent is left in the air and that fruit is attacked again soon, until it falls.

These guys make the squirrels and rabbits look like amateurs.

Although I've harvested many, many mangoes this season, right now I am just waiting for the season to end, so's I can get a rest. This " getting old stuff " is not for sissies,..and then, as the season's twilight nears,...the F-15's show up ! T'AIN'T FAIR !!! LOL !

Jofus, we have mango stories to tell this season! lol

Mine started with my 3 trees the Rosigold, the Fairchild and the Mallika. Rosigold had more than a 100 fruit in the 5 feet tree, early and delicious in flavor, my daughter had the patience to put 100 fruit bags in the tree and we had more uncovered and a visiting squirrel. At first she got confused and at the end she figured it out to scratch the bag and get the fruit, just a few because by then I had mailed mangoes to my brothers, ate a lot and froze others. Won the battle.

The Fairchild got really tall and have fewer mangoes disguised in a lot of leaves, nobody found it yet and are not ripe either.

The Mallika did not produced any fruits this year, my friend who has been growing mangoes all his life told me that this season we were not going to have any mangoes because of the weather we had in winter. I guess I got lucky with the Rosigold, I don't think I had better mangoes than this season.

Now I have the most abundant figs ever, I hope to have educated visiting birds to share the harvest, there is no way I can eat them all alone! You can keep the wood pecker, I am only consider it small birds in my yard,lol.

Hi Sylvia,

Yeah, many years ago I remember reading a UF article that said, in order for most mango trees to produce a harvest, they must have had more than a few nights of 57 degrees or lower the previous winter. Otherwise the tree will look normal in season, plenty of leaves, but no fruits. Is that what happened to your Mallika ?

Luckily for me, don't ever recall less than at least 5 or 6 sub-57 deg nights every winter hereabouts.

Hi Jofus, to tell you the truth, I don't remember.

The good news in my garden, it is avocado season. Time to make the packages...

You gotta be young Silvia ! :o)

My nasty problems with the red breasted woodpeckers will soon be over ! I just ordered two of the solar powered gadgets

( https://dbzon.com/products/woodpecker-outdoor-ultrasonic-repeller?variant=12194661662822&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoaz3BRDnARIsAF1RfLfWOzoWBqDelJtSQgxW0kTAbWmuAKq0bHLrY9QUlK3ddT-MR0qeZDUaAr6OEALw_wcB )

S/B here in 5, 6 days, - will let y'all know if they work or not. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Whose style probably is this?

I say style because it is same in three of three (different occurrences).

Photo deceptively makes it look as though much was eaten, but in reality not much.

Ok, fourth one today, same as previous except that more is eaten. They remain hanging, so, no jackhammering.

> "will let y'all know if they work" ---------- Well....?

The two solar powered transmitters that were supposed to scare away the woodpeckers arrived 3 + weeks ago. Charged both as instructed, stuck them in the ground and..... nothing happened,..except the woodpeckers were more active than normal. A week later, the same. I am now trying to get my $ back !

Live and learn !

What are you doing to keep the raccoons and squirrels away? My Pickering was so heavy with fruit the rabbits were eating it right off the tree this year.

I wonder whether my resident black racer(s) eat(s) fruit. Today I climbed around in the tree, pruning the top, and saw one of those guys in a high branch. It stayed in place despite my proximity to it, and despite the shaking caused by the sawing of adjacent branches, and the nearby commotion as I removed them.