{"id":20650,"date":"2024-06-21T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/?p=20650"},"modified":"2024-06-21T17:01:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T00:01:05","slug":"fruit-tree-pest-management-ideas-worth-trying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/fruit-tree-pest-management-ideas-worth-trying\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruit tree pest management ideas worth trying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last night I spoke with the Orange County chapter<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Squirrels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This won\u2019t 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\u2019t grip and slides off. I wonder if this would also be effective on rats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rats<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thinking of switching back to Terro<\/a> 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\u2019t last long (the bait solution ran out quickly if there were many ants).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the KM AntPro<\/a> 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\u2019d like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snails<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to read more about methods I use to manage some of these pests, check out this post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the Supporters, my website has no ads disrupting your reading experience or influencing its content. Learn how you can support my Yard Posts HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pests-and-diseases"],"yoast_head":"\nFruit tree pest management ideas worth trying - Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/fruit-tree-pest-management-ideas-worth-trying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fruit tree pest management ideas worth trying - Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. 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