What's eating the fruit of my pear and necatarine trees?

[Maureen O'Rourke O'Keefe]

Hello, I live in Northern CA and I have several fruit trees that are producing nicely now after several years however, something is eating the pears and the nectarines - the nectarines appear to only have the skin eaten but the pears are getting chunks of the pear as well. I cut a pear open that had been eaten on the outside and nothing was inside so it appears to be only eating and then taking off.

Any ideas?
MOK

[Steve K.]

From your description it could be any number of things. What I'd advise you to do is use a natural pest control method to try and rid your trees of any pests, especially around the time fruit is ripening. Mix a few drops of dish soap with a full spray bottle of water and spray the fruit, branches, and trunk. Should get rid of whatever's coming by.

[Chris]

Some wasps (yellow jackets) will eat out of pears, also the regular rodent type critters will do it as well. Even while they're still on the tree.

[Charm Dreier]

I agree with the other two posts. We have raccoons that will come in our yard and strip our fruit trees bare in one night-- one day I am super close to harvesting, the next day, gone. My only clue will be a core on the ground. This has happened to my apples, pears, and plums a few years running. But we also have a darling little rat (!) that will eat an apple on the tree while it is still attached. Just chew away until it is gone.

Once something has taken a nibble out of the fruit, weather it is a rat or mouse, a caterpillar, or raccoon, that is when other bugs will get in. Rolly-pollys (pill bugs) and pincher bugs are both species that I have seen falling out of a bite.

Another preventative measure would be to add "tangle foot" to the base of the tree. You can pick it up at your local hardware store in the garden department. You wrap a sort of paper around the base of the tree, and cover it with this super sticky gunk that rodents get stuck on and can't proceed up the tree to your fruit. If you do that, make sure that you have no tree branches hitting a fence or another neighboring tree, or else the critters will be able to get on to the tree that way, avoiding the tangle foot altogether.