Merrifield Garden Center Forum

i have around 100 fruit trees, vines and vegitable plants in my yard. its all concrete back there, so it's all in containers. we have figs, pit fruits, avacados and the such. it seems as if every one of god's creatues has claimed their share of the harvest while i do all the worrk and spend all the money.

i have been doing this for several years and have some of it under control. netting all the trees is tiresome and expensive. we hang CDs in the trees. some birds stay away(i guess the ones that are technologicall challenged are intimidated) but many ignore them.

we have tree rats, squirrels, and the occasional possum--in the heart of the busy city---and birds and more birds. they are pure murder on pit fruit and figs!

we trap the squirrels. 12 so far this year plus one possum. we release them in parks and such. we use the "have a heart" trap and bait with peanut butter. this is very effective-overall.
we have a couple of anna apple trees. this year, one of them started with aboiut 80 apples. we are downt to less than 30. as quick as we catch the little bast--- creatures, new oones show up. this tapers off eventuall after they stop making more squirrels for the season, but obviously, they don't taper fast enough. by citrus time we will probably be OK.
SO that's my problem. any suggestions out there re a more effective way to deal with this?