Some animal is eating my grapes...advice needed please

[Itch]

Only reason I say grapes is because thats whats getting eat set the trap where the holes are that they made or you could use sardines, coons love em.

 

[tjbryner]

Plus

And a few hours of lost sleep.

So far possums, starlings, and skunks have been the biggest issue for my grapes this year. I also have seen a ton of damage to my young fruit trees from rabbits.

Seems like this year has been the worst year so far for damage.

 

[Racer]

But the gap is extremely small???!!!... but yes, I do see grapes on the ground and whole clusters eaten.

My problem raccoon this year is definitely a juvenile. I kicked it out of my vines a week ago. I do mean that I put my boot to its butt in an unkind way. This morning I now have a 4" x6" hole in my bird netting and about 1 dozen clusters stripped clean with lots of grapes on the ground.

If your like me and cant shoot the offending critter then a baited trap might be able to help.

 

[Sashie]

I lent my trap out so that was out but I tried something else and it worked. So far - I didn't see any more damage.

I bought 36"X15' hard plastic netting (small holes) that I found at Home Depot. I made three panels of 12 inch X15 ft panels - I bought four rolls. I stapled the panels on the ground, making sure I overlapped my current netting that is already stapled to the ground. This netting sits very flat on the ground with no gaps. So if the squirrel wants to dig under, he has to dig a 12 inch tunnel to get to the grapes.

Of course, I ran out of netting at about 7:00 pm and was too tired to go back to Home Depot - it would have been my fourth trip. It was a small area so I used a lot of sod staples instead. This was a lot of work and I have three more rows to do (3 other rows are new plants so I can wait for next year). Luckily, the animals haven't discovered my other grapes.

Now I see a lot of bees - I'm thinking of cutting out the bad fruit but my husband wants to use Oxidate. Any ideas on bees?

 

[LCW]

Sounds like coons or opossums they destroyed all of mine while we vacationing this yr.We have since dispatched 8 or nine coons and 3 opossums.don't put off the trapping they can wipe you out in a just a few nights.LCW

 

[LCW]

Oops forgot marshmellows make grear bait for coons sardine work for both LCW

 

[AVanhoever08]

We have lost 90% of our grape crop to a little masked bandit that we trapped and let go far away from our home. They are very destructive little varmints. I would hate to think of a skunk getting into the grapes. I have had dogs sprayed by them. I wouldn't want to have to deal with trapping one of those.

 

[Sashie]

I haven't seen any more damage. The plastic netting I secured to the ground seems to be working and I've also worked hard making sure the seams on the nets have no gaps. I go out every morning and check and add more ties here and there. The only problem I have are bees. From what I have heard, bees will only go after grapes that are already compromised.