anyone have experience using bags to protect fruit?

I am anxious to prevent squirrels and birds from eating my plums, cherries, apples, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries etc from my mini orchard in my yard.

from what I hear bird netting does not really work against squirrels. does anyone have any experience using the new fruit bags to protect individual fruit?

I have some footies to try out on some apples this year. They are to protect against insects. I don't know about squirrels and birds...I haven't had that trouble save for raspberries and perhaps blueberries.

Footies are small nylons that stretch and are tied at the top. Others use ziplock type bags and Japanese use some kind of paper bag.

Yeah, I know you are wanting hard evidence for something that works, but there may not be a lot out here.

Every morning I go out and check my peach tree to make sure they are still there. So far so good. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. I may give the footies a try. I looked into the waxed paper bags like the Japanese use, but I just know I would not be able to stand not being able to see the peaches grow. That would make me go crazy!

This message was edited May 11, 2006 11:52 AM

Squirrels, you have to terminate with extreme prejudice, either with a good air rifle, traps, or poisons.
Cheap ziploc bags work great to prevent insect damage on apples, pears, maybe on peaches/nectarines; You'll probably need to net to protect the cherries and berries.

I also tried footies last year on my grapes. Yea, it worked. The critters didn't get the fruit but they ripped the grapes off the vine, dragged them across the yard, tried to rip the footie off and just managed to make a mess. We both lost out on that one.

I don't know if I'm an advicate of shooting and poisoning any of God's creatures (no judgements here. I admit that I've gotten mad enough to think about it). My method of 2 big dogs works reasonably well.