I'm thinking a hot wire, with a grounding wire?
Any ideas?

I use a pellet gun.

22LR with scope

I use a .22 but with the trees leafed out, they're very hard to see. They can sure ruin a lot of peaches.

Our Daughter lives in a city, I doubt she wants to shoot them.

Shoot em, or trap em and eat em, or let
somebody that can shoot em or trap em
and eat em do so.

IIRC Mepps still buys the tails

If you mean in the orchard wrap the tree trunks with tin so they can't climb the trees. If you mean in the cellar take away their jar opener.

I have a dozen fruit trees next to some larger shade trees. They jump from tree to tree so putting metal on them is useless.

I have some 110's out right now for the
varmint bushytails around the house.
Figured another spot that needs one, but
I'm gonna have to make some kind of
bracket to hold it on top of a pipe where
they run.

Just me- I look at it like what varmints eat
or dig up or mess on or otherwise ruin
for consumption might be a bite of food
that's needed by me or loved ones.
Varmints that take it away from me by whatever
they do get no mercy, and I don't give them
another opportunity to ruin things for me
or neighbors

Squirrels make a good stew or pot of dumplings

A live trap might work.

Perhaps Peaches could just keep her legs together.

Some time back I had an issue with squill getting in the bird feeder. I put a slinky spring on the post, sat back and laughed my ass off. Dunno how that would work with trees, but it's a thought to puzzle a bit.

Get you a big old tomcat, and tie it to the peach trees.

110 Conibears, 2x4's, roofing nails. Pretty simple and effective set up.

I haven’t read all the replies yet but has anyone mentioned napalm?…..😀

Plant almonds and peanuts instead of peaches and you’ll never have problems with squirrels in your peaches again.

110 or a wooden rat trap.

Ruger 17M2 for me

Fast & quiet

Depending on where the squirrels are located, they may be classed as game animals, so shooting or trapping them out of season might get you in trouble with the COs.

In Nebraska, they are considered game animals. I know this because I borrowed a Have A Heart live trap from the local CO and each time that I caught one he had to come and relocate it, as a civilian was only allowed to move a trapped game animal 100 yards or so. I don't know where he took them, but they never came back. If I'd had a big enough water container he would never have needed to relocate a live one, as I would never have had any success in catching them, at least as far as he'd know.

If I lived in the country the 17HM2 would be my first choice too.

I thought squirel are game animals in all of USA

If you think the squirrels are bad, wait until the birds find the peaches.

Pears sent.

Over the last 25 years I have found and blocked [with boards and sheet rock screws] 50 places where Douglas Fir squirrels gnawed their way into my house to store philberts [hazelnuts].

The solution was to buy a trap
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BPAVCG
And bait it with shelled peanuts with peanut butter on the outside of the shells.

Once they are in the trap, you can shoot them with a pellet gun, and they stop gnawing.

erickg ^^^^^^for the win. #110 conibear.

Spray the trees with DDT, squirrels hate that !

#6 shot does wonders

Hide the can opener...

Good approach. I would recommend pecan trees and increase squirrel population. Damn good eating. For protection of the peach tree, a rat Terrier works.

Then Wabi you could have fried squirrel for dinner with peach cobbler for desert! Enjoy!

Skirrel gravy mmmmm

Have you tried an owl ? A plastic owl decoy up a 15-20ft pole will shy off a lot of critters.

.

After 45 years with the local power company, I can tell you they rarely escape a good solid dose of voltage. Get an electric fence setup & modify it to fit your application.

A Have a Heart trap baited with corn will catch them easy. Relocate them wherever you want. I have relocated 6 this past month. I relocate them to an area that I like to hunt.

Nothing short of death will discourage them long-term. I usually spend the morning on the deck with my coffee and chase them off by clapping my hands and shouting “NO!”. Sometimes I have to get up and start towards them. All in all though, the losses to my very-productive Elberta tree are minimal and tolerable. It produces so many that we can’t eat them all in a year, and we freeze, dry, juice, and make leather. The newest tree on the other side of the house is a Redhaven, and is just getting started. They get most of those. I may net it this year since it’s still small.

I feed the squirrels and birds: corn, black oil seed, and peanuts. Many of the squirrels and bluejays come to my whistle and even uncalled will approach me looking for a handout. One even follows me and waits while I go into the garage for peanuts. One in particular, Jack, short for Jackass, comes up on the deck and eats peanuts right next to my chair. The little bastard is very particular, often rejecting the first couple or three until one meets his approval.

I expect a real struggle this year to keep any nuts from my three native hazelnut bushes. Just got a few last year from the first crop. They’re still small enough to easily net, so I’ll do that. Looks like there may be a good many. They’re netted right now to protect the catkins that pollenate the female flowers. The deer will hit those hard otherwise.

My mentor in this was Lou Crosley, Powell's brother. He retired early from Crosley (radios, autos, fridges) and found a small plot in their native College Hill and became an organic farmer. He had an orchard with all manner of fruit trees. His plot was next to my grandfathers house. He and I were best buddies from age 3 on.

Lou would take sewer tile (4inch PVC would do now) and strap it to a horizontal limb and then place a combination of D-Con rat poison and suet in the pipe. It did a pretty good job of keeping the squirrels out.

It was fun growing up with a guy like that. Next to the orchard was the test plot for the Cincinnati Reds. The ground crew would come out and plant whatever seed they were experimenting with and I got to play on Cincinnati Reds turf.

If you can't shoot em, can't trap em then this

Just that^^^

I net my peach tree. The squirrels get in and go crazy trying to get out. Its fun watching them get tangled up and untangling themselves.

Miss Lynn?


She dedt

And people say there’s no good new music…………😝

Tube traps work great. I use them around the seed farm where Richardson’s squirrels are a plague. The tube keeps your pets from getting into them.

https://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com/animal/WCSTUBE.html

Edited to add: stake down the trap with wire and a stake so coyotes and raccoons don’t carry off the trap with a dead squirrel in it.

Hung one of these up last week, it has killed 2 of the most destructive squirrels on the property. They loved peanut butter to death.