I'm no Sherlock Holmes but I live on a cul-de-sac with one neighbor who is definately not a suspect. The puzzling fact is the lack of tree damage unless it was a professional picker but I did check the soil surrounding the tree for any kind of tracks and there were none.
Sue - we had the same problem, lovely apples on our minature trees one day, the following day, 1 missing, then 2 and so on. Top suspects; next doors 12 year old boy, our dog or a midnight thief. We looked for weeks to try and catch the culprit.
Then one sunday I came back from my morning cycle and there they were 3 squirrels sat in the middle of the lawn having an apple tea party. Each with their own apple!
They ran (or squirreled) away I followed where they went at the end of the garden.. and I also found a pile of our missing shoes and dog toys
We have had exactly the same problem with our cordon/espalier apples, for the first time since we moved here 4 yrs ago. Every eater has gone and we have only 3 cookers left out of an abundant crop. I thought at first birds must be pecking them as some showed signs of being attacked by something, then I found some in the road and under the oak trees 60 yards away, quite large cookers, not quite ripe for picking, half eaten. I have come to the conclusion that it must be squirrels, as they are still disappearing after I made an attempt at netting them. Something is managing to get underneath. I put some netting round the one remaining eater and tucked it in but though the net bag is still there the apple has gone. We had plenty of squirrels round our orchard in our previous house but the windfalls were never even touched. Is this something to do with the awful summer we have had or was there a lack of acorns/nuts for them to bury last year. I did rake up a lot of acorns in the autumn to avoid seedlings germinating; perhaps I should have left them. We are in Bucks - where are you,? Next year, I am going to net them and try to make a better job of it and also consider setting one of those cage-type traps and drown any that I catch in the water butt.
Boule, yes squirrels are a damn nuisance and , officially, a pest. It is illegal to catch and release elsewhere so they should be destroyed humanely. But for pity's sake, try not to tell the world how you would dispose of them. One chap a few months ago was prosecuted for doing what you advocate. You are supposed to release the beast into a sack then club it on the head, officially. So be more careful or you will attract a passionate reaction from some posters here.
Thanks Paul. I didn't know that was a criminal offence. I couldn't bring myself to club it to death and how do you know where it's head is if it's in a sack. Doesn't sound very humane to me. In the unlikely event I catch one, I'll take it to the vet then. Or perhaps I'll just chop down the apple trees and dig up the strawberries and anything else they take a fancy to. I'd love to know why we've managed to harvest good crops in previous years, however, without any of them disappearing.
Thank Boule - you have given me some hope that this won't happen every year. We are in Surrey, in a very wooded area - so squirrels abound. However, they have never worried us up til now - other than pinching the nuts from the bird feeder !
I have a vague recollection of reading somwhere that pepper spray can act as a deterent to squirrels eating the bird nuts, could this idea be expanded to fruiting trees and bushes? Having just planted several fruit trees this year I'm getting very concerned by what I've just read above.....we are a grey squirrel heaven round here and they might just bring all their friends along too.
There was another thread, forget what about, but Carole is right, apparently squirrels can't stand Chilli pepper. So maybe get some cheap chilli pepper and spray it on the apples. Remember to give them a good wash before eating though, chilli & apple doesn't sound a very tasty combination!
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I'm no Sherlock Holmes but I live on a cul-de-sac with one neighbor who is definately not a suspect. The puzzling fact is the lack of tree damage unless it was a professional picker but I did check the soil surrounding the tree for any kind of tracks and there were none.
Sue - we had the same problem, lovely apples on our minature trees one day, the following day, 1 missing, then 2 and so on. Top suspects; next doors 12 year old boy, our dog or a midnight thief. We looked for weeks to try and catch the culprit.
Then one sunday I came back from my morning cycle and there they were 3 squirrels sat in the middle of the lawn having an apple tea party. Each with their own apple!
They ran (or squirreled) away I followed where they went at the end of the garden.. and I also found a pile of our missing shoes and dog toys
OK. Squirrels it is but 50+?
We have had exactly the same problem with our cordon/espalier apples, for the first time since we moved here 4 yrs ago. Every eater has gone and we have only 3 cookers left out of an abundant crop. I thought at first birds must be pecking them as some showed signs of being attacked by something, then I found some in the road and under the oak trees 60 yards away, quite large cookers, not quite ripe for picking, half eaten. I have come to the conclusion that it must be squirrels, as they are still disappearing after I made an attempt at netting them. Something is managing to get underneath. I put some netting round the one remaining eater and tucked it in but though the net bag is still there the apple has gone. We had plenty of squirrels round our orchard in our previous house but the windfalls were never even touched. Is this something to do with the awful summer we have had or was there a lack of acorns/nuts for them to bury last year. I did rake up a lot of acorns in the autumn to avoid seedlings germinating; perhaps I should have left them. We are in Bucks - where are you,? Next year, I am going to net them and try to make a better job of it and also consider setting one of those cage-type traps and drown any that I catch in the water butt.
Boule, yes squirrels are a damn nuisance and , officially, a pest. It is illegal to catch and release elsewhere so they should be destroyed humanely. But for pity's sake, try not to tell the world how you would dispose of them. One chap a few months ago was prosecuted for doing what you advocate. You are supposed to release the beast into a sack then club it on the head, officially. So be more careful or you will attract a passionate reaction from some posters here.
Thanks Paul. I didn't know that was a criminal offence. I couldn't bring myself to club it to death and how do you know where it's head is if it's in a sack. Doesn't sound very humane to me. In the unlikely event I catch one, I'll take it to the vet then. Or perhaps I'll just chop down the apple trees and dig up the strawberries and anything else they take a fancy to. I'd love to know why we've managed to harvest good crops in previous years, however, without any of them disappearing.
Thank Boule - you have given me some hope that this won't happen every year. We are in Surrey, in a very wooded area - so squirrels abound. However, they have never worried us up til now - other than pinching the nuts from the bird feeder !
I have a vague recollection of reading somwhere that pepper spray can act as a deterent to squirrels eating the bird nuts, could this idea be expanded to fruiting trees and bushes? Having just planted several fruit trees this year I'm getting very concerned by what I've just read above.....we are a grey squirrel heaven round here and they might just bring all their friends along too.
There was another thread, forget what about, but Carole is right, apparently squirrels can't stand Chilli pepper. So maybe get some cheap chilli pepper and spray it on the apples. Remember to give them a good wash before eating though, chilli & apple doesn't sound a very tasty combination!