Squirrels having my apples

[MarkPelican]

Anybody got a workable solution?

I have grey squirrels taking my apples. About 10 each day. They eat the skin and leave the rest. I've tried netting under the tree but they just ate their way through. Tried putting some sacrificial apples with cayenne pepper but they just ignore them and go up the tree. Throwing stuff at them doesn't work either, they just go and hide in the oak trees until I go back inside.

At the rate they're going, there won't be any apples left when they are ripe at the start of September.

Short of a shotgun or air rifle, I've run out of ideas.

[devonuk]

Squirrel trap (google it). I've never used one. Or get a lurcher - I know that works.

[burnie]

Pet Pine Marten?

[Lardman]

No solution here either, blooming tree rats have eaten everything from my trees but left nextdoor's manky old cox orange tree alone. The only things left standing are the blueberry bushes and they're in a 2" weldmesh cage.

[fishpond]

Had the same problem with gauges last year.
Try using fleece sleeving that is used for pot plants in the winter. Really depends on how many branches the tree has & how difficult to sleeve every branch.
Note:- the squirrels must have eaten all of the plum moth larvae last year, as I haven't inadvertently eaten one yet!

[MarkPelican]

The tree's too big to net individual branches (15 ft high and a spread of around 20ft) and there are probably around 500 to 1000 apples on it.

Its just that its never happened before, whilst the birds have a few, the squirrels have largely left it alone. I presume that one (or one family) have decided its a great source of food so why not keep going.

I put a couple of apples covered in chilli pepper on the fork of the trunk yesterday to see if it would discourage them, they stopped going up the trunk and jumped straight into the branches from the ground (about a 4ft standing jump).

Water pistol with chilli powder water might be worth a try.

[MarkPelican]

Squirrel trap (google it). I've never used one. Or get a lurcher - I know that works.

The problem with a squirrel trap is that once you've caught a squirrel because they're vermin you have to kill them, you can't release them somewhere else. A loaned dog might be a solution (might discourage the local cats as well).

[Snoop Puss]

Large plastic bird of prey?

[GBax]

Its not very PC but they are an invasive species and are terrible for songbirds and trees (And fruit).

Bait station and an air rifle, or trap them, or both.......a win for you and the local flora and fauna

[MarkPelican]

Now they’ve had my alpine strawberries. Yesterday whilst I was gardening, I thought to myself “they look as though they’re ready to eat, must pick them”. The obviously were because this morning they’d gone. Saw the squirrel dancing away with one in its mouth. Bl**dy things.

[gardening_gal]

I have no words of wisdom I'm afraid but this is the stuff of children's Disney films. In my head, the squirrels are cute and funny, waiting to outwit the homeowner standing shaking his fist at them. Squirrels 2 - Mark 0.

I do understand how annoying this must be though, I'm sure it's anything but funny in reality.

[MarkPelican]

I have no words of wisdom I'm afraid but this is the stuff of children's Disney films. In my head, the squirrels are cute and funny, waiting to outwit the homeowner standing shaking his fist at them. Squirrels 2 - Mark 0.

I do understand how annoying this must be though, I'm sure it's anything but funny in reality.

Unfortunately real squirrels are neither cute nor funny and their ability to outwit me is due to the fact that they seem to be in the garden from dawn to dusk.

[Lardman]

I find the best way to keep them off the apple trees it to plant pear trees so they can eat the pears instead.

[fishpond]

grow rambling roses up the main stem.
Hope they go somewhere easier.

[MarkPelican]

grow rambling roses up the main stem.
Hope they go somewhere easier.

We have a rambling rose growing up our oak tree and it doesn't seem to stop them going there.

We have successfully stopped them eating the birdfood with one of those plastic domes and I'd thought about putting something similar around the trunk of the apple trees but then I saw one jump three feet vertically onto a branch of the apple tree.