Sunday, July 24, 2011
I hate you squirrel. I declare war!
Yesterday, I took this photo. I was so excited because the Glenora grapes were finally turning purple in color. I was totally anticipating eating these. They weren't quite ripe yet so I patiently waited.
Then today, my husband said, "we have no grapes left". What? What? My only guess is that it was a squirrel since these vines are 4 feet off the ground. Not a single red grape left. Whatever it was ate every last red grape off this vine. Notice how it left the green ones untouched? Ugh! And I didn't even get to taste one. So. Very. Annoyed.
At least we have Cayuga green grapes left on one of the other vines. As of today, none of these were eaten.
In an effort to prevent squirrels from eating these, we put bird netting over this grapevine and stapled it to the 4x4 posts. Do you grow grapes? Have you ever had this problem with critters eating them before you do?
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Darn squirrels, those are some nice looking grapes hope you can keep him away from the rest of them.
ReplyDeleteIts funny you put up bird netting -have you considered the culprit birds??
ReplyDeletePS, I would leave comments more often Meems, but my internet is too slow to load your pages! Sad but true. Good luck, the netting should work.
I too thought it could be birds, unless you have squirrel evidence. But, yup, critters will eat all sorts of stuff just when it's about to ripen. A bird netting type of thing is probably the best way to protect them if you don't want to go to more drastic means (like killin'). Last year, we waited patiently for our best charentais melon to ripen (one of only like three) and one evening we said "let's harvest it tomorrow." We go out in the morning happily anticipating a charentais melon and, lo and behold, there's only 1/2 of a charentais melon! Probably a racoon or possom got it during the night. We washed off that hald, cut off the parts the had teeth marks, and ate that 1/2 a melon! And it was *good* :)
ReplyDeleteI would never do that with something I didn't grow myself if I wasn't starving or something... Non-gardeners look at me oddly when I tell them that story. I'm sure they're thinking I'm a Klampet as they're thinking "she ate a melon an unknown animal ate the other half of. Get away, get away!"
That's the worst when you're waiting for something to ripen and then an animal or bird gets it before you. We grew grapes years ago, but the squirrels didn't bother them, although it might be because they had seeds?
ReplyDeleteI've covered my measly 8-10 blackberries with a netting ! Lol! I would highly recommend some sort of covering, that should work!
ReplyDeleteCould have been the birds too. They have been wiping out my figs.
ReplyDeleteWhen in MI the squirrels and raccoons and any other critter that came in the yard ate well. I learned to leave low lying containers of water all over the place because they tend to be thirsty. If they have water they are less likely to eat your juicy fruits and veggies.
ReplyDeleteYou can cover the grapes with netting?
Darn. How frustrating! I hope the netting does the trick.
ReplyDeleteWe have a tremendous squirrel problem in our 1/2-acre community garden. They nest in the attics and crumbling walls of the surrounding buildings, so there's no getting rid of them unless there's a huge cooperative effort, which aint gonna happen in my lifetime. They eat or damage everything. I mean EVERYTHING: young apple tree branches broken, the tiny green apples pulled off; green tomatoes yanked off the vine and chewed (not eaten), and the tomato plants destroyed; beans/figs/greens/melons/eggplants, even hot chilies pulled off and chewed, the plant branches ravaged in the process. Sigh, now that nearly everybody has built a chicken wire "jail" around their plot, my little patch is being destroyed. I haven't picked a tomato yet this year.
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