Does it ever end??.....NOPE not around here.

Cecil

Ottawan you might be right!

Go to the hardware store. Get some 1/4" or 1/2" steel mesh in a roll -or- go to the HVAC section and get a 6" or larger steel duct (they come in sheets and you lock the ends together) -or- go to any place that sells stainless steel sheet metala and get a 20-gauge or thinner piece of sheet metal.

Take and loop a piece (very loosely) around the base of the trunk of your fruit trees as such:

That would work on the rabbits, but around here the mice in the winter time could scale that fence in nothing flat!

Cecil

You know, Martin asked me about the same thing I think last year, I didn't have an answer then, and still don't know!
and as my Mom use to say "and theres another verse under that one"

The thing looks to much like a rat for me to eat, sides that, If I brought one in the house for Fig Picker (wife) to cook, it has a good chance I would leave "her kitchen" wearing it!

Regards from the South
Cecil

I hope you are not serious!

Tell me you is joking...HAHA

Cecil

Cecil

For small trees I have used the corrugated black plastic pipe sold for french drains. It is made in both solid and perforated types. It cost about a quarter a foot when I last bought it. Lowes, Home Depot, etc.

I use it by cutting sections to the length I want, then running it across a table saw to split one side. That side can then be spread open to go around the tree, but it pops back together the moment it is released.

It serves to keep rabbits and mice away from the trees and it also protects the trees from your string trimmer. I leave it on all year long until the trees grow so large that they are spreading the pipe.

I also use these sections as rat and mouse bait stations. They are quite flexible, so I bend them into a "U", drop rat poison to the center, then lay them down flat against a wall and let the poison do its thing. Rats and mice run along the walls, so they enter the pipe and get poisoned as they go thru.
Ox

1 Gopher, skinned and cleaned
1/4 cup onion
1/4 cup green pepper
1/2 tbsp minced parsley
1 tbsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
4 1/2 tbsp. flour
3 cups broth

Cut Gopher into 2 or 3 pieces. Boil for 1 hour. Remove meat from bones in large pieces. Add onion, green pepper, parsley, salt, pepper, and flour to the broth and stir until it thickens. If the broth does not measure 3 cups, add water. Add the meat to the broth mixture and stir thoroughly. Pour into baking dish. Roll only enough to make it fit the dish. Place dough on top of meat, put in a hot oven (400 degrees F.) and bake 30 to 40 minutes or until dough is browned. Serves 6-8.

Now if all else fail grow them plants in containers sit them outside you front porch, get a scatter gun you can't miss when you see them nearby this way.
Best Health

From the South
Cecil