Squirrels, rats and opossums love avocados as much as humans do. My brilliant neighbor is successfully protecting the fruits with paper bags held in place with clothes pins. She covers the fruits shortly before they get close to maturity. (Avocados do not ripen on the tree.) I am trying it as well. So far, so good. The neighbor reports the fruit has no problem ripening after picking, and tastes as good as if they had not been bagged.
Update March 4, 2022: Neighbor reports that at least critter figured out it could rip the bags off, but not all of them, because she was able to harvest some fruits for her family. Also a comment pointed out Opossums are not rodents, which I had grouped in with rats and squirrels, so I removed that.
I hope it works for you! I don't mind losing guavas to squirrels but it would irritate me greatly to lose avocados to them (if we had a tree) - it's bad enough that some critters eat the oranges.
ReplyDeleteFruit trees mean rodents and homeowners just need to deal with them--an old retired citrus farmer told me that, and experience has convinced me it was wise advice.
DeleteUnfortunately I am experiencing rodents with my fruit trees and vegetables :(
DeleteWe just have to manage the situation as best we can, right?
DeleteIngenious. Those little varmints will get into anything that tastes good. I understand why they would go for avocados--they're so delicious. I have to watch how much guacamole/avocados I eat because of digestive issues, but I love it.
ReplyDeleteLove guac! It's a several-times-a-week treat here when the tree is producing.
DeleteGreat tip! And oh, to be able to harvest my own avocados.... Yum!
ReplyDeleteWe are very lucky to be able to grow them. Home-grown avocados are like home-grown tomatoes--more delicious than store-bought.
DeleteThe Mother of invention. Good idea. I might try that with my lemons. The squirrels get them when they get so big.
ReplyDeleteGive it a try, though you have rain quite a lot--another idea I have seen is using a piece of window-screen wrapped around the fruit. Paper may degrade in rain--not sure, it doesn't rain here enough to be a problem!
DeleteOpossums are NOT rodents. In fact they're not even a tiny bit related to rodents. They are cousins of the kangaroo, sugar gliders (aka "flying squirrel") and the koala. They are marsupials (they carry their babies in a pouch). However, the opossums in North America do kill and eat rodents sometimes and they are the best and most natural pest control/exterminators on the planet when it comes to pretty much anything that might infest your home or yard, and they are known for wiping out HUGE tick populations. They also rarely carry diseases that are harmful to humans. Opossums are not aggressive by nature usually and if you happen to surprise one it will usually just hiss and growl at you in an effort to scare you away because like all animals that growl, they are growling because they do NOT want to engage or interact with what they are growling at. If a opossum is cornered (and especially if it has babies in its pouch) then they will defend themselves but usually if they know you are coming ahead of time and they cannot escape before you get there then they will play dead.... that's where the phrase "playing opossum" comes from. Opossums are very intelligent animals that just want to be left alone to eat the things humans consider to be pests and do their part as nature's clean up crew, so appreciate these unique animals and educate yourself on the facts concerning them too. Most of all just know that OPOSSUMS ARE AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteI like Opossums. I'm pro-Opossum. They eat snails. I sometimes see them running along the phone lines after dark. I read they eat baby rats, a big plus. Nothing against them except... I don't want them eating my avocados.
DeleteAnd Paper bags won't harm them.
🌷Hi, just happened on this site :-) 10-2-23. re the rats eating avos … (they also love my tomatoes!) I spray (saturate) both fruits with mint water; rats hate mint. Good luck! :-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea, if it works for you, great!
DeleteSo what happens when it rains with the paper bags, aren't you continually replacing them?
ReplyDeleteI did update the post. Neighbor reported rats increasingly learned to just rip the bags open. As to rain, yes, it's destructive to paper bags. Neighbor ended up getting rid of her avocado tree. My own approach to rodents eating avocados and citrus is the WCS tube trap:
Deletehttps://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com/animal/WCSTUBE.html
I realize many people want something that does not involve traps, but realistically what MUST be done to keep the population in check enough to have a good harvest. Poisons are of course NO--because a poisoned, dying rodent can be consumed by a valuable predator (raptors, bobcats, etc.) and then poison the predator.