methods of preventing squirrels/birds from eating fruit?

I am considering using bird netting and perhaps a scarecrow balloon to keeps birds and squirrels away from my peaches, apples, blueberries, cherries, rasberries, and strawberries.

anyone have any experience using the netting or the balloon- do they work?

Neither of those will work on the bush-tailed tree rats. Your only effective control for them is removal - guns(air rifle, .22, shotgun), traps, poisons, or an effective dog who is in the orchard at all times(if they're in the house, they're not protecting against squirrels)..
If trapping, please don't relocate the vermin - they're not an endangered species, you have to take them a LONG way away or they'll beat you home, and in many states, it's illegal to relocate wildlife - you create problems for other people in the relocation area, as well as for the existing population you release into, and for the relocated animals, which may die a prolonged death due to starvation, lack of shelter, etc.. If you're using a non-lethal trap, dispatch the vermin as humanely as is possible.

I have fought the squirrels every year with no success. This past fall, I pruned an Elberta dwarf so that it would have no lower branches below about 4 feet and have attached a really big bird feeder baffle to the trunk. I am hoping this will work. There are no trees overhead from which they can jump.

If you do a google with peach and squirrel, you will get thousands of hits. Many, many people have this problem with the squirrels. I never found anyone to that had a good solution except for one fellow. He built a big screen house around three dwarf trees - complete with a door!!

People have tried and reported negative results on using coyote urine, pepper, moth balls, etc. I tried the netting but you really can't get it closed tightly and the squirrels can chew through AND the tree keeps growing through the net making it a bear to get off.

The sad thing about the peaches is that the squirrels will pull a very small, unripe peach and take one bite and then pitch it and go to the next one. They will do this until the tree is bare.

I've not had too much trouble with the birds but I keep my feeder full and maybe that's it.

If you find a good solution, PLEASE post.

how do the commerical orchardists prevent squirrels from eating their fruit?

I have wondered that myself.

The only explanation I can think of is that there is simply no place for the squirrels to build their nests in a commercial orchard.

I've seen orchards with rows and rows of neatly spaced trees. The workers ride in carts up and down the rows, checking the trees. I expect they would deal quickly with pests.

I've also heard some (net) people say that they have 'so many peaches' that the squirrels don't matter. MY squirrels are not eating ripe peaches but only tasting and throwing the little unripe ones. And stripping the entire tree before any even get a chance to get ripe. Perhaps my squirrels are just really stupid.

I asked some local commercial people and they don't have any squirrel problems. I think its the fruit to squirrels ratio. On the other hand they have huge problems with deer.

I had squirrels strip my peach tree bare one year and next year I got a .22 caliber pellet gun with a nice scope on it. I also have a yard cat that helps convince the wandering squirrels to set up home elsewhere. This year I have had two decide to take up lodging which I shot dead, and I have not seen any more since early spring. Last year I killed a couple in the spring and never saw another until after the harvest in the fall.

Scott

scott- as a real city boy- i have never even seen a gun!
do u need a license to use a .22 caliber- can one just pick it up and shoot or do u need instruction? how come the squirrels don't return when you are not around- ?

gg, hey, I thought ALL city boys knew about guns, LOL.

Few places require a license for a .22 caliber gun, although nowdays the gun has to be registered. Instruction is helpful and most gun dealers have access to shooting ranges and some instruction.

Mine is a .22 semi-automatic rifle with a scope and holds 16 rounds. I've never fired it.

gg, my gun is a pellet gun and in most places no license or registration is needed. They are not nearly as fast as bullets since there is no gunpowder. They are still very lethal to squirrels if the aim is good. Also they are still dangerous tools so keep them under lock if you have kids. I have a trigger lock on mine. Now that I think of it, NYC may have restrictions on pellet guns, so you may be in an unlucky spot. Only a couple places in the country have restrictions on them.

Scott

I have a website for you to check out. www.mgonline.com/squirrel.html This is a good idea on your squirrel problem. C.J.

I finally got peaches this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the solution was simple. I did try the mothballs, the nets, the bags of Irish Spring soap, the pepper spray, etc. None of it worked for me but this did - check out http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/627107/

Simple and it worked!!!!!!!!!! I did discover the birds will come when the peaches are really ripe so that is the time for the netting.

Those peaches were so delicious!

For goodness sake...be careful! For those of you that have been raised around guns all your life, you know what to expect but even shooting a gun up in the air can be dangerous. If you miss, that bullet still has to go somewhere...and if you live in a densely populated neighborhood it could spell disaster for someone's pet, property, or appendage.

For newbies thinking about getting a gun just for squirrel control, ponder on this for a second. Taken from a hunter safety article, "a .22 bullet can travel a mile and one-half before coming down."

It's your yard and your tree and you might live out in the middle of nowhere, but like most people, I've got neighbors to my left, right, front, and back. If I miss, that bullet isn't gonna just come to a complete stop. Are you willing to risk it? And like the poster with the pellet gun said: it can be lethal IF your aim is good. I remember being a kid and having my neighbor's older brother shooting squirrel's with his BB gun for food. He'd bring them down still breathing, battered and broken...sometimes with an eye out or a partially crushed skull. And they're dangerous as well as illegal in some states to shoot animals with them b/c it causes undue suffering.

I live in a pecan orchard with not a single squirrel in sight. Do squirrels like pecans? I always assumed they did. You know what keeps them away? My neighbors ungodly cat. I hate that darn thing too. Pawprints on my car, lazy, nasty, cattitude, lounging around in the grass all day with not a care in the world. My aunt has a 17 acre pecan orchard and keeps barn cats outside as well. Usually strays that she picks up (or has dumped on her farm) and gets spayed and vaccinated. They not only deter squirrels from being around by their sheer presence (a lot more efficently than dogs I might add, since they can climb trees) but they keep rodents, rabbits, and snakes to a minimum on the farm as well. Now I don't know what your situation is and I'm not saying to go and get a kitten and dump him outside, but if you come across a neighborhood stray, you might could let him "adopt" you. Just make sure you get it fixed so you don't a) end up with 50 of them at the end of the year or b) have to listen to the relaxing sounds of feline make-out music at 2 o'clock in the morning.

Grow catnip out by the trees, I'm certain the cats will hang around your yard. I'm not sure if a wasted cat will kill anything, LOL.

Better yet, just emphatically state how much you hate cats. No doubt they will hear you and flock to your house in droves. I detest the nasty little creatures. Something about their attitudes, their "I only like you if I need you" ways, even the sinuous and oily way they walk...*shudder*. So, of course, every cat within petting distance manages to find its way into my yard. Twice now I've even had to extricate one from the undercarriage of my car. As a result, we have no squirrels, no birds, nada, nothing, zip, zilch...but a ton of pecans.

The best way I have found to keep squirrels away from your crops is to feed them! We live in the woods and I have a large hanging feeder I keep full of shelled corn year around. Corn at the local coop runs around $3.50 for 50lb.All our neighbors, not close by, can't even raise tomatoes but squirrels have not bothered any of our fruit or Veggies. Now if I can keep the deer out of the garden?