We’re sure the culprits who ate our apples in the orchard area were ground squirrels. Andy didn’t see them in the apple trees, but he saw one inside the net yesterday in our cherry tree…and yes, some of the cherries were already gone. Andy didn’t get a good look because when the ground squirrel saw him the squirrel scooted out of there.
If you want to make a ground squirrel happy and fill his belly, then just introduce him to a fruit tree. This of course can be particularly annoying if you are trying to grow these trees, as ground squirrels will munch on your fruit trees to their heart’s content and they will damage them as a result. They are known to take the fruit right off the trees. Fruit trees that they especially like include apple, apricot, prune, peach, and orange trees.
—What Do Ground Squirrels Eat?
You learn something new every day. We still don’t understand why we never had trouble with the apples before.
August 3, 2020
I don’t know…
part of me thinks I would just grow the apples and other fruit etc for the creatures who’re eating it already! I mean… it would be different if your lives depended on the fruit. (and at some point our lives could depend on what we grow) but hopefully we could just be thrilled it produced fruit to share with nature’s creatures! I suppose that’s a totally ridiculous attitude about it all!
and of course there’s always the wonderful green house that they CAN’T get in!!! yayyy!!!
Yes, we built the greenhouses because of the critters, but after all the work he puts into his fruit trees I don’t think Andy agrees he should let the critters do all of the harvesting. He does the work so he gets to decide.
Hmmmm, that all new to me
I thought they were seed eaters.
We had an outside garden years ago and ground squirrels were one of the animals that ate the produce. One used to chatter at us if we stayed in “his” garden too long. Then he ignored us and would come in and eat anyway.
So we can’t say: An apple a day keeps the squirrel away?:)
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
😀 No, I’m afraid not.
I wonder if “some body” gathered up some pesky squirrels and took them to the forest…and now they are doing what pesky animals do: breed. I assume they are like rabbits in that department.
I know there are people in my country who take pesky roosters or similar up to a forested area – dump them and flea – pretty soon that area is known for chickens galore….
That’s interesting…at least it’s a humane thing to do if the chickens propagate. I’m guessing that hasn’t happened in this case because we’re so remote. Quite a while back the area was full of rabbits running around. That lasted only about a year, then we had a bumper crop of coyotes that culled the rabbit herd. We don’t know why that year was so good for rabbits, and the same thing with the ground squirrels this year. It will be interesting to see if they get culled too.
I can’t get over how different your ground squirrels look from the eastern brown and black fox squirrels around here. I have mostly the brown ones and they won’t eat apples. I’ve thrown them out in the yard for them but the squirrels just leave them for days, preferring bread instead. Then at night something comes along and eats the apples. I have possums, woodchucks and rabbits and candidates.
We had some tree squirrels before the fire, but not nearly as many as we saw in Ithaca, on the Cornell campus. We loved watching them, taunting the dogs, who never gave up hope of catching one. They would watch and the squirrels would be on the ground seemingly oblivious to the dogs. So the dogs would make a mad dash to get one, and at the last second or two the squirrel would zip up the tree.
….as candidates, that last line should read.
He is cute. He and his family must have only recently moved in. I am trying to think of how you can keep them out. Seems they could jump or scale any height fence.
For some reason hardware cloth seems to work, most of the time. I’ll write tomorrow about why it didn’t this time.
He’s cute for an apple thief.
Yes. 🙂
Are squirrels are a little bit more adorable than our squirrels. You can add to the list of fruit they love grapefruit and avocados because they used to eat hours until there was none left for us. The breadfruit tree died and the other one is not bearing real good this year. Maybe the reason they’re worse this year is because they had an environment where they had plenty of food and now that’s run out and they’ve come to your place.
😀
Wellllll, maybe…. This fellow just happened to happen~upon, your “neck of the woods.” And just happened to discover, that you provided his/her favorite food.
Good thing you wrapped trees! Because “the word will probably get out” sooooon! “All area ground squirrels! Come over here!!!!! The pickin’s are gooooood!”
And….Yes your little “smiley rose,” did work, on your comment, on my blog comments!
The word did get out when we had a big garden. We didn’t mind sharing, but the animals wouldn’t leave anything for us. That’s why we have the greenhouse.
It is strange…I never, ever saw a squirrel of any sort in the apple trees at the orchard I worked at. The back of the orchard and one side was woods. Animals are just strange…the first few years I worked there, the deer loved to pick and bit the Gala apples. Didn’t seem to bother any others. That went on for 2-3 years, then it completely stopped.
That is strange. Who knows?