# Keeping Wildlife out of your fruit



## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

We live in town so we don't have to much problem with wildlife except the squirrels.
We just bought 2 acres in West By God Virginia  in the country that we someday may move to if the economy gets good enough to sell the in town home. Meantime, I plan to plant as many fruit vines and tree's as the property can handle. My concern is how much will there be left after the wildlife take what they want and what can I do to deter them. I believe Deer and Birds will be our biggest problem.


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## UBB (Jan 3, 2012)

I have 100% of my vineyard and approx 95% of my orchard inside an electric fence. Zero issues inside the fence with deer and raccoons. Birds, I'm still not sure how to deal with them. They like my cherries and I imagine they'll love the grapes as well.

Edit to add: I do have signs of moles though. Will find out this spring about any damage to my vines.


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## arcticsid (Jan 3, 2012)

Angelina, many of us share the similar concerns.

For example if a Moose shows up in the yard to take a Pea, you just have to deal with it!

LOL!



"take me home Country Roads". by God!!

(ps look close, that is an electric fence, see the little sign? apparently Moose don't read well)


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

LOL Arcticsid did he leave you a note "sign is too big" "Pea's to small"

UBB A electric fence sounds promising. The Deer don't wisen up and just jump the fence? Are they very expensive? I will check into the cost on line as well.


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

I used to have a mole problem at a former property and they did a number on my yard. I got mole traps and it took care of the moles in a season. I would check the traps everyday and reset them. Moles breed like rabbits so you have to be on top of it till they are gone otherwise they will just breed more. I placed my traps anywhere I found soft ground (their route)


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## arcticsid (Jan 3, 2012)

I was going to pea on the fence just to be sure it was hot.

Luckily I changed my my mind at the last moment!



(no pea soup for me!)LOL


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

Maybe you should have just Pea'd on the Moose and made it more interesting


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## arcticsid (Jan 3, 2012)

What?

I felt bad about shooting her tail off!!


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

All he took was a pea, good think he didn't go for the Tomato's!




arcticsid said:


> What?
> 
> I felt bad about shooting her tail off!!


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## arcticsid (Jan 3, 2012)

Yeppers!!!

and by God!

got -40F on the nose right now. West Viginia dont sound so bad to me right now. John Denver neither! By God! LOL!

Looks like a beautiful place to me. Miami looks pretty nice too ,but you can give me the country and the hills anyday! Besides that been to Miami and wasn't impressed! Keep it.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ&feature=related[/ame]


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## grapeman (Jan 3, 2012)

Use netting, either side netting or over the top depending on the training system you use. It also works for betties and smaller fruit trees.


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

West Virginia is a beautiful state and so much of it is untouched. Every time I go to this property I fall in love with it all over again. I real breathe of fresh air. Fishing about a quarter mile down the road too. 

Thanks Grapeman, I was thinking about netting but I have never used it, Is it very hard to maintain? I am 5'2" and I can see myself getting tangled up in it real quick. How do you get it on and do you have to take it off to harvest or after the season is finished? I am sorry if these are silly questions, I just have no experience and I have never seen anyone install/place them so I have no visual either.


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## grapeman (Jan 3, 2012)

Side netting is really easy as you just unroll down each side of the grapes and clip the top and bottom together. Over the top netting is a bit more challenging for those of us that are vertically challenged. I have made an application aid that makes installation a snap using yourself and a couple friends. Just run the net out the length of the row laying it on the ground. Starting at one end. run the net through the tool. Have a person hold the end for a bit while you put the tool and net above the row, walking down the row. Have a person on each side to follow about 15 feet behind sprading the net over the sides. It goes really easy and once done just clip the bottom of the net together about once between each vine. If you get to the point you want to try it, all you need is a 5 foot section of schedule 80 sewer pipe (1 1/2 inch) and a 3 or 4 inch T and an adapeter to mate the two if needed.


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## Angelina (Jan 3, 2012)

Thanks a lot Grapeman, when I am ready for them I pick your brain for more information for getting them and using them. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!


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## deboard (Jan 3, 2012)

I went to a local winery, and I saw these:

http://birdscarepredatoreye.com/

on their grapevines, about every 20-25 feet. I asked them what they were, and they said they work great for keeping birds away. I have so few grapes I use netting, but I bet these would be easier to install and take down. You can also buy them other places, including amazon.com

I'm only relaying this winery's opinion, I have no experience with them personally.


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## Larryh86GT (Jan 3, 2012)

Angelina said:


> We live in town so we don't have to much problem with wildlife except the squirrels.
> I believe Deer and Birds will be our biggest problem.



The squirrels and birds loved my Marquis grapes this past summer. I ended up having to pick them fast. I could have netted them but it just seemed like too much work for a few grapes on 2 vines. I can't think of anything to stop the darn squirrels other than trapping them. Squirrel stew maybe? 



arcticsid said:


> I was going to pea on the fence just to be sure it was hot.
> 
> Luckily I changed my my mind at the last moment!
> 
> ...



You don't want to do that. I remember more than once hunting in the rain in my younger days and touching them. The best word for it is "shocking"


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## Randoneur (Jan 3, 2012)

Even with full netting rolled and clipped, deer and squirrels can get a lot of fruit. 
Deer just push the netting in against the grapes and eat whatever they can pull through. Some times they will tear through the netting. 
If the squirrels can find any opening they will climb around on the inside of the netting and eat all they want! Squirrels have an amazing talent for finding or making openings and working their way in at the posts. 
As I said - I drape 14 ft. wide netting over the row and roll it up at the ends and under the row to close it up then clip the roll and I still loose a lot of fruit.

Buy a shotgun, a 22, and 7mm mag, a couple of dobermans, etc.!!


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jan 4, 2012)

I live there, we got more deer than groundhogs. We planted apple trees in our Wineyard. The deer used the lowest limbs to support their legs as they stood up and ate the higher limbs, pulling them down and sometimes breaking the tops of the trees. I thought I would show them and just cut off the bottom limbs. A buck came and saw all those nice straight trunks and rubbed his antlers off on every tree, and the bark, killing several trees. I had to put cow fence around each tree to keep the deer off of them. I have planted some other trees this year with tubes on them hoping they can at least make it over the top of the tubes before the deer start eating them. Your only choices here are fencing if you want to keep them out or a big dog that lives in your Wineyard. 

Winemaking plants in our Wineyard that the deer dont do much damage to are black raspberries, black berries, elderberries, currants, jostas, gooseberries. They will nibble a little, even helping prune the tops of the raspberries but wont kill them, usually.

Also you need to check to see if you have walnut trees, there are a lot of them around here, they are allelopathic, especially to apple trees, and can roots over 100 feet away and kill an apple tree. We put raspberries near the side with the walnuts and they did good.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/fruits/blkwalnt.htm

Crackedcork


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jan 4, 2012)

I forgot, we also have a lot of wild turkeys, they can fly over your fence, they are fat, they break limbs off of trees and walk around eating whatever you are growing but havent been nearly as bad a problem as the deer. We just plant extra hoping to get some of it Crackedcork


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## Angelina (Jan 4, 2012)

Thank for the information CrackedCork. I think I read somewhere last year about Walnuts not being a friendly companion tree, and or a side note definitely not good for the composter as it would create havoc for the garden with toxins.
I will not be able to put a dog on the property till we are residing on the property, but it will be the first addition when we do. I miss not having a dog, but there is just not enough space here for a dog to be happy.
Turkey? huh I had never thought about that. Thanks for the heads up.


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## UBB (Jan 4, 2012)

A not so good picture but you can see the electric fence we have around the vines.


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## grapeman (Jan 4, 2012)

UBB you might need to add a couple feet to that to exclude the deer. An alternative would be to come out a few feet from that fence with a single strand about 3 feet high. When they jump the first, the second is too close. They soon learn that and quit trying.


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## UBB (Jan 4, 2012)

In three years not one deer track has been seen inside the fence so it must be doing the trick. It's an electrified 5 wire fence that's almost 6 feet tall. I have noticed raccoon and or skunk tracks though. Various live traps have captured some tresspassers.


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## grapeman (Jan 4, 2012)

Height deer jump is a function of available feed. If there is plenty, they probably won't attempt it, but that doesn't mean they can't do it. Deer can easily jump 6 feet and sometimes 8 feet. I was just bringing this up because the poster wants to be able to exclude animals. If it is working for you, great! That is a great looking vineyard you have.


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## Angelina (Jan 4, 2012)

Thanks for all the great suggestions. The two acres I have are flat land and 1/2 of it is wooded. Outside of the land perimeter is also wooded. There is also a possibility that in the future I could obtain more connecting land. That said I definitely have some planning and thinking do.


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