Best investment so far this year:

[BrandonP]

An Electric Fence.

I had a problem with opossums and possibly raccoons and squirrels (but especially opossums) eating every ripe fig overnight.
First I sprayed castor oil--nothing (though perhaps it did help with the gophers).
Then I trapped an opossum and relocated it 15 miles away....less than 2 weeks later the overnight attacks were on again.

Then I put up one of these:



For my container trees one wire 4-5 inches off the ground with a close to 9000 volt pulse every second seems to have eliminated rodent pest problems (still an occasional bird peck, but I can live with that). For my in ground trees, I have two wires (one 4-5 inches off the ground, the other about 1 foot off the ground).



Now my family and I are enjoying these daily:



Too bad electric fences won't work underground for gophers.

[Ktrain]

No that's going to war!

Very nicely done!

And awesome harvest

[KDAD]

I bought an electric fence for deer back in June. Once it arrived the deer stopped coming around. It is still sitting in the box....it will get used, that I am certain of.

[Jamey]

I love it. Looks easier than having to build a wire box bigger than each tree to keep them out. I like that idea allot.

[BrandonP]

Electric fences are actually super easy to put up and they are barely visible if you stick with one strand of aluminum wire. They have the electric tape too if you want something more visible. Just make sure to keep the weeds clear of them and fix any grounding issues when/if they occur. If I'm working around the orchard during the day, I just turn it off for a while, then turn it back on when I'm done (so I don't get shocked). It can be taken down in a matter of minutes at the end of the season if desired.

[Vladimir]

Can't the squirrels crawl under or jump over the wire and land in a tree?

[BrandonP]

Probably, but for some reason they don't seem to mess with the figs. Maybe they have too much other stuff in my yard to go after (they are definitely stealing my pears from my trees in the front yard). I have not seen a squirrel in any of my protected areas yet though. Electric fences are more a psychological barrier, so some of the avoidance behavior around them is not exactly rational. For example, I have a number of people tell me a horse will not cross over a point where an electric fence used to be (one that has been taken down) unless pulled across that area.

[SubmarinePete]

That's great news! I might have to get one of those pretty soon.

[BrandonP]

If your figs are disappearing overnight, this is probably the most effective solution (that is probably better as time goes on unlike most other things that pests learn to ignore). Last year I started losing figs toward the end of the season and had no clue what was happening. My whole first year in ground LSU Gold tree was cleared of figs one night. This year when it started happening again at the beginning of the season I knew something had to change.

[Halligan-]

That’s awesome

[Sparky]

No problem yet with my figs (yet) but the deer thought my young apple trees were a buffet just for them so I bought a motion-activated sprinkler. End of problem 😁