Something ate all my apples

[ToddG]

I had about 200 apples on 6 trees. I checked on them about 3 days ago and they all looked good. I took a look at them tonight and they have all been eaten except for maybe 10 apples. I couldn't find any evidence of any apples left on the ground. Does this sort of thing happen very often? I am a little discouraged. I am wondering if it is even worth it to plant apple trees if the deer or family never get the opportunity to get any of the apples. Just venting I guess.
Thanks,

 

[mikmaze]

should set a trail cam to see what does it, and trap accordingly. my bet is raccoons.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Yes probably racoons

 

[Buckly]

Or neighbors.

 

[Bill]

I love those dog proof pipe coon foot traps.
Tuna fish, hot dog, marshmallows all work great as bait.

I don't have fruit. But I like my quail so I don't like coons.

 

[mikmaze]

come on now, coons aren't bad.... taste like pork a bit................... but only off areas away from water, they get funky down by the river.

 

[H20fwler]

I am in a flat out war with coons. I trap them year round using the DP traps in summer and everything I can in fall/winter...they are like a hydra kill one five come to it's funeral.

 

[ToddG]

I think you guys are right. I have seen a lot of coons on my trail cameras. I guess I need to break out the 22

 

[Bc4abc]

coons or neighbors...i had a peach tree raided by the locals once......

 

[ToddG]

Apples were a month or two from ripe. No neighbors close to the orchard.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I have live traps out by my house almost all year. I haven't had an issue with coons on my apple trees, but they really like eating vegetables from my garden and they also seem to enjoy knocking stuff off the shelves in my barn. Any coon that ends up in my live traps gets turned into apple tree fertilizer.

Coons are bad, but it always could be worse. My fruit trees on my hunting property in northern Wisconsin are finally doing pretty well and I had high hopes that this would be the year I have a decent crop. Then early this spring a bear tore up a bunch of my largest trees and now some of the trees are back to square one. I'm fairly sure the bears just do that to piss me off. They also chew on my permanent stands and snap off 12' pines that I have growing as a visual screen.

 

[ToddG]

Bears are like kids. Sorry to hear about your trees. I guess I am going to just keep trying.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

There's always next year. I think I've been saying that for the past decade, but eventually things will work out. My new plan is to overwhelm the critters by planting more fruit trees than they can eat or destroy. Time will tell if that plan works or not, but it can't hurt to try.

 

[ToddG]

There's always next year. I think I've been saying that for the past decade, but eventually things will work out. My new plan is to overwhelm the critters by planting more fruit trees than they can eat or destroy. Time will tell if that plan works or not, but it can't hurt to try.

That's funny. That is what I was just telling my wife. If I plant enough trees, I think I can overwhelm them.
She just laughed and shook her head. I am going to implement the new plan early 2018. Wish me luck.

 

[Bc4abc]

i had a bear dig up a newly planted persimmon once just for the heck of it....no fruit on it just saw a new "toy " and decided to play with it . left it laying flat on the ground dug up from the roots.

 

[ToddG]

I had a tripod feeder out full of corn and my game camera recorded a bear pulling it to the ground and ripping it open. He pulled all the corn out into a big pile and just rolled in it. He then laid in it for about 20 minutes and then just got up and left. He ate very little corn.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bears for sale .............. REALLY good price. ( FREE ) Fresh from our camp to your place. I'll take your coons - you can have our bears.

 

[roth2000]

Bowsnbucks you need to do a better job of selling it. You need to say that for a couple bears it cost you $100 each plus taxes and fees plus shipping but for quantities greater than 3 or more bears they are free and you'll cover all the fees.

 

[Bill]

IMO coons are just little bears. I left a bottle Jack out at the farm. Used it to lift the tounge on my mower to hook it up. I know I left it upright. Dang thing was on its side in the morning. Coons.

 

[WTNUT]

Todd G,

Getting your fruit is not the worst thing they do. They can do a lot of damage to laterals and the top of a central leader. That is what ticks me off the most! I am going to continue to trap and use stovepipe around the trunk about 2 feet off the ground as Appleman suggested in one of my threads. Yes, they are little bears Bill!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk