Last night I spoke with the Orange County chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers about dealing with pests of fruit trees, and they contributed so many ideas worth trying that I have to share a few.
Squirrels
Someone showed me a method that her husband developed to keep squirrels from chewing on their avocados. He takes a small paper plate and cuts to the center with scissors. Then while the avocado is hanging from the tree, he slides the plate around the stem, overlaps the cut sides and staples them. (See the photo above.)
This won’t help with avocados that are hanging near the ground. But for those higher in a canopy, squirrels must climb into the tree and down a stem to chew on the top of an avocado. The plate protects the top. And, she said, if the squirrel tries to climb down onto the plate it can’t grip and slides off. I wonder if this would also be effective on rats.
Rats
There’s not a rat to be found in my yard or house or garage or barn because I have a couple of excellent cats. However, should I find myself having to kill rats without my cats, I will return to using the classic Victor traps and placing bait as suggested by one person in the audience, who said he has great results using raw almonds and scratching them with a screw so that they are aromatic.
Ants
If you can prevent Argentine ants from farming aphids and scale and other sapsucking insects on your fruit trees, then the populations of those insects crash because natural predators can more easily get to them. (See here.)
I’m thinking of switching back to Terro ant bait stations, as was recommended by a few people at the meeting. When I used them in the past they were effective and very easy to deploy; my main dissatisfaction was that they didn’t last long (the bait solution ran out quickly if there were many ants).
But the KM AntPro bait stations that I’ve been using for the last handful of years have not satisfied me either. They’re not so cheap or easy to maintain, and they’re not as effective as I’d like.
I’m also thinking of taking the time to finally try some hydrogel beads soaked in a pesticide solution as the researchers at UC Riverside have done.
Snails
I’m going to explore the effectiveness of spreading diatomaceous earth around the trunks of citrus trees to keep snails from climbing up. Someone said this works, and I have some D.E. on hand. I also have a couple of citrus trees that snails have chewed up badly.
Someone said that a 3/4-inch band wrapped two times in a spiral around a tree’s trunk works to keep snails from climbing into the canopy. I’d like to see if this works on my citrus trees.
It was also said that a layer of perlite over the mix in a pot will keep snails from crawling into the pot and up the plant in the pot. I don’t have snails getting into any of my potted plants, but maybe you do. If so, try it.
In the beginning of my talk I said that we need not fear pests of fruit trees because smart people have figured out ways to deal with them. I sure was right!
If you’d like to read more about methods I use to manage some of these pests, check out this post.
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On those bands that you put around your trees if you apply some Tangleroot onto the bands then the pests will not cross it and that includes the ants.
Also I am trying out a remedy for leafminers that love my citrus trees. My citrus trees are not huge so maybe this is not for everybody but leafminers mainly like to ruin your new growth and they make the leaves look ugly, so at the beginning of the season, right after the flowers turned to little fruits and the bees were gone and everything that was going to get pollinated got pollinated I bought the yellow tacky cards on Amazon. They were 5″×8″. I cut each one in half because I am cheap and I get 2 out of each card. I placed 2 into each citrus tree, one on each side. I’m sure you can place more if your tree is larger. I have not had any leaves destroyed so far. That’s not to say I won’t get any as I am only testing these out, but they seem to be working out really well with not much effort. I wish everything was this easy. I have changed the cards out as we have many bugs here and once they touch those tacky cards they are a prisoner for life. It has been 4 months so far and all is good. I will keep checking and I am sure I will have to change the cards out again sometime soon. I have 12 different citrus trees that I am doing this to. So the test has worked so far on all of them. I am a Florida Gardener in Zone 9a.
Here in California I’ve used Tanglefoot gel applied directly onto the tree trunk with a stick (the stuff doesn’t come off of anything it touches!). It kept Argentine ants and their little cows (aphids) on the ground where they belong. Had some real problems with aphids carrying a tomato virus carried onto plants by their herders. Have had good luck attracting birds with weeds and broccoli left to seed. They come for the seeds and eat bugs.
Hi Greg,
I will have to respectfully disagree with the copper tape / wire theory, something of a myth. Tried it years ago with negative results. One organic very quick way to stall snails in their tracks is good old saw dust. It clogs up the mucus and they move no more. We also use a100% neem oil dilution rate of 1:100 in milliliters, in water, for other pests aka leaf munchers . It affects them as a natural broad spectrum contact insecticide. This is done as a soil soak method and performs as a systemic effecting only the leaf munchers not killing lady bugs or any other beneficial insect. It is certified organic and does not interfere with fertilizing. It is somewhat expensive but is very effective.
Never tried sawdust. A product called Sluggo eventually eradicated all snails, an introduced species, in my yard. Snails may be cannibals and ingest it that way, too, because it didn’t require many applications and the effects lasted for years. Neem didn’t work to stop cabbage moths on broccoli but does seem to work on other critters.
Thanks, Greg. More methods for me to test out. I appreciate it!
My biggest problem is with Squirrels.. nothing works but squirrel traps sometimes. Then disposal of them…
They eat all the fruit on my fruit trees. Alot of my Citrus fruit. And fig & avocado trees, and rarely ever get any pomegranates. I tried everything to stop, & Control them. Nothing works.
My son lives on a 10 acre farm in Apple Valley & uses a 22 rifle. And no longer is bothered by the squirrels.
That is one of the methods allowed by California. Drowning isn’t allowed. I stopped growing blueberries because even bird netting didn’t stop the mockingbirds. I’m a good shot with a pellet gun but it wouldn’t be cool in my neighborhood. Have you tried getting a cat? My cat caught a mouse the other day and it was in fine shape. I took it across the street and let it go, alive alive oh. It was too cute.
Hi Greg: I use 1” width copper tape (pull off adhesive back) and wrap around my palm and avocado trunks. An electrical/chemical reaction occurs when a snail tries to cross it . As a result I have no snails above my tape line. Usually tape about 3’-4’ up the trunk. Thye tape lasts at least a year. Sometimes I’ll use very small nails to tack up areas if difficult to adhese.
I set one of those Victor electric mouse trap (the big one) to catch rats and such, however 90% of what I’ve gotten thus far has been squirrels. I use all natural peanut butter in the bait holder and electrical tape to hold the door shut, the first few rounds, the critters opened the door and ate the peanut butter. No snail problems for me and for some reason I haven’t had any ant problems the last couple years, but the previous 4-5 years had a lot all the time. Aside from my trees being started from 5 gallon pots 7 years ago and now being much larger, I can’t think of any other reasons i’m not swarmed with them the last couple years. On a Hillside in Whittier, James D
The squirrels also eat my Mangoes, & most of my Quava’s. And vegetables, (tomatoes, & papaya also)
And where do you buy these electric traps. I need thrm to catch squirrels. What model, & make are they. Thankyou
Anyone have ideas on how to prevent fruit flies from ruining my peaches and nectarines on my trees? I pick the ones that are not too mushy and clean out the bad part, but it’s very frustrating. It’s a daily procedure to pick the rotten fruit in the tree as well as on the ground. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Julianne in Escondido.
Hi Julianne,
What do these fruit flies look like? Are they eating holes into the peaches and nectarines, or are birds (or something else) pecking holes that the fruit flies are later exploiting?
You can pick peaches and nectarines pretty early and let ripen on the kitchen counter. That might be part of a good short-term strategy.
How do people deal with Oriental Fruit Moth. My nectarines were devastated last year and all my younger trees are suffering from the tips dying back resulting in a lack of a good tree structure due to multiple weak shoots. My Spice Zee i heavily impacted.I have avoided using dormant oil spray until now and all the literature I have found is for large orchards, certainly not back yard growers.