Squirrel nuisance

[Waik1k1]

Hi,

How do you keep squirrels of the Asian pears trees? My in-law have this two Asian pear trees that produce quite a good crop every years but the squirrels always end up ruining it. Does anyone know how to prevent the squirrels from coming near the pear trees or to keep it away? Any help or suggestion is greatly apreciated.

Thank,

Tl

[nofeargardener]

I've been told this works for veggie gardening - not sure if it's transferable to fruit trees, but its worth a shot. Basically, take used dryer sheets, dump a tablespoon or two of cayenne pepper in the middle of it, and tie it shut with a piece of twine (so you get a ball of cayenne pepper). Make up a bunch of them, and hang them at various places on the tree, preferably around the fruit. You can try the same thing with moth balls too. Again... not sure if this will work for trees, but I've heard of people having success in their veggie gardens with this method. I've also heard of people making a hot pepper spray, and lightly spraying down their fruit trees (not sure if this will have any adverse effects on your tree). I personally think your best option is to try putting some sort of flange or baffle around the trunk of the trees to prevent squirrels from climbing up them. Or... as a last resort, perhaps a BB gun or some motion activated sprinklers? Hope this helps! Hang in there! :D

[JeffM]

I had been fighting with ground squirrels for years. They dug up the pots on our patio and devastated our garden. For a few years I grew tomatoes in large pots surrounded by plastic mesh, but this barely kept the tomatoes safe from the squirrels. One year I even used a live trap to catch and relocate the squirrels, but it seemed like there was a never ending supply of the little critters.
Finally, out of frustration, I started using a device called the Rat Zapper. It was designed to cleanly electrocute rats and mice, but I found it also worked quite well on squirrels.
I've been using it for the last few years and finally this year I won the battle - no plastic mesh needed around my plants and the few squirrels that do show up are easily dealt with.
This device or one like it might help.