Must be a racoon...

[straywolf94]

This year I've been very sucessful keeping rats and birds off my figs. I've been using these cups over any ripening fruit to great effect.



A few days ago I noticed my 5G Unknown Pastiliere knocked over and some of the cups on the floor a a few eaten figs. I thought it might have been a combination of the wind and mice/rats. Thing is, my Have-a-heart rodent trap has been empty for months since I've been actively caging them. This morning, I woke up to this.





This was a Burgan Unk plant with 6 perfectly ripe caprified figs ready for harvest today. I'm so mad!

[Anaba1030]

Sorry to see that. I've been loosing the battle with rats this year. I haven't eaten a fig weeks since they found my trees and now that they've eaten all the ripe ones they're going after unripe fruit. I'm going to give your cup method a try. Hopefully I can try a few of my figs this season instead of feeding the little $#!+$.

[tinyfish]

That raccoon does have good taste. Time to buy a raccoon trap. I fear that now that it has tasted figs it will keep coming back. Not only do raccoons eat the fruit they will break branches when they climb the tree which is really bad if you do a lot of grafting.

[Recklesstown_Chad]

That raccoon has got to go. That stinks.

[Morgan]

Dealing with a pissed off racoon in a cage is no fun. Skunks are a bummer too. Release them far, far away (5 Miles) or it will come right back.

[It Could use another day]

No don't make him someone else's problem, put him down or drive him WAY out of town.

[fisherman]

Taking bites out of multiple fruits and not eating all of each one does sound like a raccoon.
Something that I have posted about before: if the raccoons in your geographic area are rabid, you want to exercise extreme caution. Rabies can be spread by infected bodily fluids, like saliva or urine. There are some terrible stories from a number of years ago of just this happening in NY. This means no touching the cage with bare hands or picking up half eaten fruit with bare hands if you are in a rabies positive area.

[jrdewhirst]

I agree. Raccoons are a prime pest of fruit trees, but in my experience they don't just take bites.

[Terra]

He'll be back...

[BrandonP]

Opossums were doing this to my fig trees. We also have raccoons around, but what I caught was an opossum.
My solution: electric fence. Working beautifully. Best pest deterrent ever!

[Bellefleurs]

Oh my goodness!! Just today I taped some of these clear cups over two of my ripening figs. My first 1-258 and a MIB. I suspect that an opossum has been ravaging my trees lately…along with squirrels.
The bird netting hasn’t proven as effective as I had hoped as the animal has managed to somehow still chew figs through the netting.
I hope that you are able to catch and relocate whatever is bothering your trees.

[jake44141]

My neighbor feeds wild animals. The raccoons have cost more than $10,000 damage on my house. I have caught more than 20 raccoons. No more raccoon here anymore.

[straywolf94]

How are you catching them? Large cage trap?

[7seas]

Last year raccoons devastated my yard and made a huge mess. I have caught 6 by the end of the fruiting season.
What I think brought them over besides the figs is the organic and fish fertilizer that I have been using on young plants
Have not used fertilizers this year prior to ripening and have not seen any coons yet. (knocking on wood)