How Can Squirrels Harm Your Fruit Trees and What to Do About Them?

Squirrels- Those furry little animals prancing around in your garden are sure cute, but they can create havoc on your fruit trees. If you have grown tired of their menace and are looking for ways on how to keep squirrels out of fruit trees, you are in the right place.

How Can Squirrels Harm Your Fruit Trees?

Squirrels can work as professional vegetable and fruit pickers. They have a fondness for fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers. They are intelligent animals; squirrels will wait for your apple produce to ripen before they decide to snack on them.

Squirrels will dig up spring bulbs, eat new plants, and chew on twigs and branches. They are known for their big appetites. Do not be fooled by their appearance; squirrels are capable of devouring all fresh fruits of your trees. In some cases, if the branches of the trees are not pruned, they can jump over the same branches and get inside your homes.    

Repelling squirrels is a job you will have to be at all around the year. They are most active during the late summers and early autumn, preparing for the winter season.

How to Keep Squirrels Out of Fruit Trees?

Water Jets to the Rescue

Water jets come equipped with motion sensors. If a squirrel or any other rodent comes near the fruit trees, the water jet will detect the animal and spray them with hot water. Another advantage of using a water jet is that you do not harm the animals. You annoy and scare them off.

Use Fake Predators

Fake rubber snakes and mechanical owls could also be helpful in scaring squirrels off. Ensure you pick natural look-alikes of snakes to have an effect on the squirrels. Keep changing their positions once every few days to make them look realistic.

Keep Them Busy with Squirrel Baffles

A baffle is touted as one of the best solutions to keep squirrels away from your fruit trees. You can easily find baffles for trees for thin to medium-sized trunks. You may have to get the baffles customized for trees with thick trunks. Install them at least 4 feet from the ground as squirrels can jump that high and make the baffles useless.

Use Squirrel Netting

If you decide to go the netting way, ensure you are covering trees from all sides. Several squirrel netting options are available in the marketplace that can protect delicate fruits like peaches while not harming animals getting close to the tree.

Try Rodent Repellents

You can explore the option of organic rodent repellent to keep squirrels and other rodents away from your fruit trees. Organic repellents are safe to use. You need to spray them around your trees, and it will help repel rodents like squirrels, rabbits, and raccoons.  

The above suggestions may help answer your question of how to keep squirrels out of fruit trees. It would be best if you do not solely rely on any one of the squirrel repellent methods. Suppose you are offering them food in a separate area of your garden, back that method up with water jets or baffles for a positive outcome.