Other than morning male urine, how do I save my pears?

Last year these pesky foxes teamed up to pick all the pears off the tree. I caught them red handed. It is a dwarf tree and not sure how to protect the fruit. I have heard to leave on the radio, male pee everywhere, (ew) and it is so low I don't think I could protect them from climbing up it. I have pantyhose on my grapes so would that work? If I pantyhose each pear? A large netting would work but I need to find a way to support it. Any suggestions out there?

If these foxes are motivated, I'm inclined to think that the only thing that will work will be to totally cage your tree. If you're creative, you might be able to build a modular box that can be assembled a couple of weeks before the fruit is ripe, and removed after picking. This would be better for managing the area and for appearances etc. It might also be useful for other crops that ripen at different times - like for me, something that could cover my strawberry bed in June, and a tree in Sept would be cool!

I've also heard that pears are a fruit that are better picked before they're ripe, and then ripen them on trays indoors. I think that may be because they bruise so easily that handling them before fully ripe is less likely to damage them. So are the foxes waiting until they're fully ripe, or moving in early?

My gut feeling about bagging the fruit in mesh, is that foxes are likely to eat the bag and fruit both! I don't know that, as we don't have foxes on my Island, but my sisters in Ontario have foxes and they seem like pretty good scavengers. I'd go for hardware cloth (wire mesh). People have pushed plastic deer fencing in my area, and just about everything chews right through it - I'm ready for Fort Knox myself!

Spitballing, as I haven't done this; you might be able to make them unattractive by spraying garlic and Neem oil.  I'll be trying that this year as I have the same competition here.

Jays right.

One of my ideas was to use motion sprinkler or light. Fox don't like to be seen, but from the pic you were pretty sneaky and it was daytime. So both sprinkler for day, sprinkler and light for night.

You could also get or make some pepper juice and coat the pears. Have to do it after every rain to be sure.

Make it HOT!!!  

Good Luck

Would those portable electric mesh fences work for foxes? I've heard of them for chicken enclosures to protect against predation but I don't know if it would work for trees. I know those aren't cheap but if they help with protecting a variety of homestead assets, might be worth looking into.

Will Wit wrote:Jays right.

One of my ideas was to use motion sprinkler or light. Fox don't like to be seen, but from the pic you were pretty sneaky and it was daytime. So both sprinkler for day, sprinkler and light for night.

You could also get or make some pepper juice and coat the pears. Have to do it after every rain to be sure.

Make it HOT!!!  

Good Luck

Does that affect the pear taste? haha it seems like it would but again, I have never had fruit trees so I have no idea.

Gabe New wrote:Spitballing, as I haven't done this; you might be able to make them unattractive by spraying garlic and Neem oil.  I'll be trying that this year as I have the same competition here.

right on the fruit and whole tree?

Betty Garnett wrote:
Does that affect the pear taste? haha it seems like it would but again, I have never had fruit trees so I have no idea.

From the way it sounds it's either no pears or electric fence( good idea) $300-500 ouch. Caging it somehow, scaring them with water sound and light or..... "Oh these pears are good, spicy but good"  lol. I don't think it would affect it internally and might need a good wash.

If you're going to use a deterrent like hot pepper or garlic, I'd use one that would wash off, unless you planned on peeling the fruit - in fact the chosen spice might be absorbed into the fruit's skin. Research would be needed! I definitely wouldn't use anything that is toxic to humans - bad taste is one thing, getting sick is another!

Will Wit wrote:

Make it HOT!!!

I've heard of people trying to use hot pepper sauce to discourage certain behaviors in domestic animals, only for the animal to fairly quickly adapt to the taste. Since this would be a once a year thing, it might just work, but I've dealt with very committed racoon, and if they've decided they like to eat chicken/duck, dissuading them usually requires a lethal response. I don't like that - they're part of our ecosystem - so I try to prevent them from ever tasting chicken or duck, so they don't learn that it's delicious.

Another idea - put strings on a bunch of mouse traps and stake and set them thickly all around the tree? It would be a long shot, but my friend did that with her cat and certain houseplants. Downside is you risk collateral damage, but if there's not bait on the traps, hopefully birds won't get hurt.

Offhand, I'd bet that angry mamabear pee would send a message as well. One does not mess with an angry mamabear.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Offhand, I'd bet that angry mamabear pee would send a message as well. One does not mess with an angry mamabear.

Yes, you would have to use a predator greater than the predator in question. Do they sell Coyote urine? That's the only other predator in N. America above the Fox I think. Besides Eagle pee, lol that's protected pee, very hard to obtain. Mountain Lion, another unobtainable.

The solar lights are cheap and the good motion sprinklers are $80.

Will Wit wrote:The solar lights are cheap and the good motion sprinklers are $80.

Good options!

P.S, I was thinking of angry human mamabear pee. Any sensible creature would think twice. (Kidding, folks, I'm kidding.)

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Will Wit wrote:The solar lights are cheap and the good motion sprinklers are $80.

Good options!

)

haha protected eagle pee.
I just thought about one of those creepy halloween clowns that laughs or screams when you walk by. I could just load the whole garden up with those.

Also, these guys came at 2pm. So lights might not work. Wish I could make motion sensor music like "I feel good" by James Brown. I am sure that would run some critters off.

Betty Garnett wrote: Wish I could make motion sensor music like "I feel good" by James Brown. I am sure that would run some critters off.

The old style motion sensor light that we have, has a "motion sensing" part, and a light bulb socket that most people put a flood-light in (which drives me up the wall because it blinds me!) You can buy adaptors to a light socket that allows you to use it as an electrical socket - we have one in a room in our coop because we needed to run a small fan in there. So if you get the right type of "motion" sensor that isn't limited by "dark", you might be able to get it to work with some sort of noise producing device. If you're serious about trying something like this, I will get some input from Hubby as he's the technical guy in our electronics department.

However:
1. if nothing bad actually shows up to interfere with the foxes' activity, they'll figure out pretty fast that your system is "all bark and no bite".
2. you might tick off the neighbors?