[Sca-cooks] fruit trees

[Sue Clemenger]

Yeah, except shooting off a .22 within city limits can get you in *big* 
trouble, even in a state like mine, that's very heavily pro-gun.  Our 
squirrels wouldn't make much more than a mouthful, anyway.  Not that my 
cats would care, if they could catch one! ;o) I live in a 2nd-floor 
apartment, so my kitties don't get to go outside, but the local squirrel 
population runs back-and-forth across the front porch roof all the time, 
and come up and pat at our front window, and drive the cats *insane!* 
(it's marvelous fun to watch...the kitties have finally learned not to 
try to go through the window glass ;o)
It might be possible, though, to poison the squirrels, if you're okay 
with that, although that can get into repercussions as well.  Or maybe 
trapping them, like you would set a mouse trap for food-eating vermin 
*inside* one's house!
--sue

John Kemker wrote:
> Having been the property of several hunting felines, I must warn you 
> that cats don't really put much of a dent into a squirrel population.  
> Cats don't climb trees as much as we might think they do.  Mostly they 
> stalk on the ground.  This is good if you're trying to keep 
> ground-squirrels and moles down, but not so great if you're trying to 
> keep red or grey tree-rats down.
> 
> If you want an effective method of keeping the tree-rat population down, 
> get yourself a good .22 rifle make Brunswick Stew with the results.  [grin]
> 
> --Cian
> Who *likes* squirrels.  In Brunswick Stew.
> 
> Huette von Ahrens wrote:
> 
>> --- Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Huette commented:
>>>   
>>>
>>>> Our apricot trees just produced the best
>>>> crop ever.  And our little
>>>> ultra-dwarf peach produced a dozen normal sized sweet, luscious
>>>> peaches.  Our neighbors white
>>>> peach tree which is hanging more and more over the fence is overloaded
>>>> with succulent white
>>>> peaches, so sweet and juicy and ripe off the tree ... so much better
>>>> tasting than anything the grocery store ever provides.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> Do you have problems with birds? If so, how do you solve this?
>>>
>>> When I had a peach tree at our other house, the birds would poke 
>>> holes in the fruit. I would have been willing to share if they'd done 
>>> this to just a few peaches or eat most of a peach. But they would 
>>> poke a hole in one fruit and then go on to another, and another...
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Some bird problems, but not apparently as bad as yours.  Our biggest 
>> problem is squirrels.
>> They find the ripest, biggest, most luscious fruit, eat half of the 
>> fruit, throw it down and then
>> go for another.  I am debating about adopting an outdoor cat, even 
>> though I am allergic to
>> them.  But at leat they don't deliberately eat fruit.  I wonder what 
>> kind of cat would go
>> after squirrels?  As far as I am concerned, squirrels are just rats in 
>> fluffy clothing with
>> better PR.  Fortunately, our apricot trees overproduce so that our 
>> losses don't affect us
>> too much.  My little peach tree wasn't bothered by birds and the 
>> squirrels didn't find it
>> until I had harvested all but two peaches.  I am not sure that the 
>> squirrels have found
>> my neighbor's peach tree yet as the peaches aren't ripe yet.
>> I haven't found any effective bird and squirrel deterrents.  My mother 
>> used to cover the ultra
>> dwarf peach tree with cheesecloth, but that really didn't do any 
>> good.  The apricot trees
>> are 40' and 30' tall.  There isn't much one can do to protect such 
>> large trees.  Other than
>> perhaps a squirrel stalking cat.  Hmmm ... I should look into hawks 
>> and owls too, although
>> they probably wouldn't like living in an urban area.
>>
>> Huette  
>>