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Squirrels

 
pollinator
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Google search bar indicates that today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. . .
Apart from looking good in the landscape - are there any other reasons to appreciate them -  spreading oak trees maybe, when they fail to find a stash?
What are the thoughts on this topic?
 
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Tree squirrels are rather amazing in how they build their nests all the way up in the trees while many of the other animals shelter under the snow or burrow into the earth. They make their great leaf-wad dreys where the cold winds blow and blow. It is inspiring also as someone interested in inspiration for building in natural wild sources. If I ever find one on the ground it would be interesting to examine and see how it is made.

My friend was telling me that they also make decoy dreys so as to confuse predators. You will see clusters of dreys, two or three in different trees in close-ish proximity and it’s possible that all but one are empty and never were meant for habitation.
 
Steward of piddlers
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In an ecosystem, squirrels have their role much like other animals.

As has been mentioned, their habit of caching away nuts helps their spread and growth. Forgotten bundles of calories also serve as food for other critters. I was reading something once about how squirrels help the spread of certain mushrooms through their consumption and then travel with spores on them. Squirrels also serve as prey for an array of other species that exist higher up on the food chain.

I have fond memories when I was younger of going out on squirrel hunts. While they do not have much meat on the bone, they are a bit of protein that can be sustainably harvested. On a day where someone might not be able to bag a pheasant or deer, certainly there is a squirrel out in the woods that can be appreciated.

 
Rusticator
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I've also heard of folks taking advantage of the fact that squirrels stash away so many nuts, they forget them, by creating what squirrels would see as 'perfect little hidey spots', then when the squirrels have filled them with nuts, they harvest them, for leaching & cooking.

Squirrels also work to some degree, to keep predators' interest off my chickens & ducks. My dad used to keep squirrels in the freezer, as that protein source, and hunting them kept him busy and entertained. As often as not, his  'hunts' were just an excuse to go sit under a tree in the woods, take in some fresh clean air, enjoy the peace & quiet, and watch the squirrels & other wildlife for a few hours.
 
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After being incredibly frustrated with them stealing our apples and no deterrent working, I came to the conclusion that I needed to focus on harvesting squirrels first, apples second. Some people may not like it, but a conibear trap will last a lifetime if properly maintained, and will harvest a lot of protein. A good air rifle is a quality investment as well.
 
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Long ago, when I was 17 and hadn't yet figured out that I needed to find a way to live in the country, I lived in Middletown, Connecticut. I would walk through the park--I needed to--and I would see squirrels and think, THEY don't have jobs, and they get by fine, don't they? So I credit them with that inspiration, and I have a photo on my wall of a nest with baby squirrels looking out and they're so cute. But now squirrels are at the top of my shit list--well, maybe under chiggers--because they steal most of my tree fruits every year. I haven't found a solution. There've been times I threatened to rip that photo off the wall. But I haven't.
 
Timothy Norton
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Squirrels however need to leave my peaches alone...

Squirrel munching on young peaches.
 
Carla Burke
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Timothy Norton wrote:Squirrels however need to leave my peaches alone...



I've lost an entire harvest from mine, in a single night, to squirrels. In fact, I didn't get to taste a single peach from my tree, for the first 3 years we were here. Then, I managed to get 8, the 4th year. Last year, I think I managed to get 10, because I bagged them with whatever little bags I could find around the house.  They go up, grab one, bring it down, or to another tree, take a bite, spit it out, throw the rest in the ground, and go back for another one. I've now wrapped my peaches in organza bags. I left the ones at the top of the tree, that I would struggle to harvest, but the bags keep them safe from the squirrels, worms, and other non-human peach lovers. They were less than $10/100 on the site that starts with 'A'. I'm going to put bags on some more, this week, because I'm hoping to surprise a family member or two, with peachy care packages, this year.
 
Mary Cook
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Carla--I tried that last year. Don't remember which brand, turned out there were several, all green, all made in China out of "organza" which could be silk or nylon--no doubt the latter and I'm trying to get away from using plastic but--I used all 200 bags that came in my order, on apples pear and peaches, and it seemed I got more fruit than in most years, and only found about 30 bags on the ground dirty and usually torn. But my neighbor, who told me about the bags, said they found most of the bags on the ground. Thing is, these bags also protect, to some degree, against insect and possibly disease damage. And unlike using "whatever bags I could find" (I initially used halves of old socks), they're easy to apply (they have a drawstring) and don't fall off. I called this a partial success last year but there is a complicating factor: we had a prolonged drought last year--which might have only encouraged the squirrels, or maybe it knocked down their numbers before the pomes were ripe. But it's probably the reason my trees have set almost no fruit this year despite no frosts at bloom time--they set heavily last year, all of them, and ripened fruit through that drought and it took a lot out of them so they;re taking this year off to recover.
 
Carla Burke
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Hi Mary! My tree had so few blooms this year that I thought this whole season would be a wash. When I saw a few tiny fruits,  I got excited, and thought maybe we'd get lucky and have enough for a pie - IF I could protect them. So, I ordered the bags, and as soon as there was (finally) a sunny day, I got out and started bagging. Since then, I've seen at least half a dozen more. Now, I'm REALLY excited. If all goes well, this might be the biggest harvest we've had, yet - but it will still be under 50 peaches.
 
Mary Cook
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Last year one of my trees (the PF 19-007 (YES, it needs a better name!)) had so many set--on what's still a small tree--that I picked off 250 little fruits and still had about fifty left to go to maturity--I might have gotten half of those, despite bagging them all. I didn't bag all the apples and pears, just as high as I could reach standing on a stool--the squirrel swipes them from the top down. My one mature peach had a lot of good fruit despite the drought but--no doubt because of the drought--for a while when they were ripe I couldn't get at them because a cloud of bees and wasps were guarding them. They also kept me out of my raspberry patch through most of the harvest. Only time that's happened. I used to think peaches were dicey here as they bloom early and we get variable frosts, But I find since I've been living on the ridge, they seem to set fruit well even--one year it hit 12 degrees when they were in full bloom, and they still resumed blooming and set fruit when it warmed up.
 
Carla Burke
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Carla Burke wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:Squirrels however need to leave my peaches alone...



I've lost an entire harvest from mine, in a single night, to squirrels. In fact, I didn't get to taste a single peach from my tree, for the first 3 years we were here. Then, I managed to get 8, the 4th year. Last year, I think I managed to get 10, because I bagged them with whatever little bags I could find around the house.  They go up, grab one, bring it down, or to another tree, take a bite, spit it out, throw the rest in the ground, and go back for another one. I've now wrapped my peaches in organza bags. I left the ones at the top of the tree, that I would struggle to harvest, but the bags keep them safe from the squirrels, worms, and other non-human peach lovers. They were less than $10/100 on the site that starts with 'A'. I'm going to put bags on some more, this week, because I'm hoping to surprise a family member or two, with peachy care packages, this year.



Update:
We managed to save 1 peach. Yup. ONE. And, it wasn't in the bags! My observation was that in the squirrels' curiosity, they figured out that the bright, white things each contained a beautiful peach - and they proceeded to wipe out all the bags, ripping them open, and eating the peaches, so now my poor tree is decorated with form-up organza bags that used to be white. 🤬

My next attempt to save them will be to dye a batch of bags green, this winter, to match the leaves. Maybe green bags will not only offer protection from insect damage, but at least help disguise them, and help them blend in with the leaves. I can dream, right?
 
Timothy Norton
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I have had no success with saving any peaches this year. I planted another tree in a side yard with hopes it may go undetected.

That was a foolish thought!

I'm now tempted to plant two more peach trees even further away in hopes of overwhelming the squirrels taste for peaches.

I'm envious of someone down the road who has a roadside peach tree that is flush with peaches. Why don't the squirrels bother them? I tell myself its because my peaches must be so good they are irresistible in appeal.

One day we will have peaches.
 
Carla Burke
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Timothy Norton wrote:I'm envious of someone down the road who has a roadside peach tree that is flush with peaches. Why don't the squirrels bother them?



Maybe ask them? I'd sure love to know their secret! (And, yes - I've been known to stop and ask total strangers, "what is that?" Or, "How do you do that?" type questions! Occasionally, friendships &/or mentorships spring up from it. )
 
Mary Cook
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Carla--yes, the notion we all have that it would be offensive to jump in a stranger's face to admire their garden or ask how they do it so well, is wrong 90% of the time. Most people love to teach what they know. And we need to overcome the distrust of strangers that has so weakened our culture.
And- Tim--your neighbor's peach tree that's loaded while squirrels have made off with all yours--could it be that your neighbor's beautiful peaches spring from a vigorous spray program, and that the squirrels can smell the toxins and prefer your organic fruit? Or else they have dogs who are sometimes loose in the yard.
And finally, Carla--I bought 200 of those organza bags last year, hoping they'd protect my fruit from the squirrels, and I think it was PARTIALLY successful. Those bags are marketed especially for protecting the fruit from insects, are made by multiple companies mostly in China, and all I have seen are green. Once the squirrels--or bugs--are honed in on your tree, they'll find the fruit regardless of color camouflage, but it slows them down. I used the bags that weren't damaged again this year--not on peaches, which didn't set fruit, people say because of a frost, but my pear didn't even flower, only one of my four  blueberries did--I think last year's prolonged drought, in a year when everything set fruit heavily, took so much out of the trees and blueberry bushes, that they took this year off to recharge. But I did get some apples (early apples, and there are still apples on Goldrush and Enterprise).
 
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