Watching a promising pear harvest disappear is a common frustration for many gardeners, with persistent squirrels often the primary culprits. These pests are driven by a constant search for food sources, especially as fruit ripens. Protecting your fruit is challenging, but the most effective defense involves a combination of strategies: physically blocking access, creating sensory barriers, and eliminating environmental attractants. This approach allows for non-lethal protection of your pear trees throughout the growing season.
Physical Barriers to Block Access
Physical exclusion methods offer the most reliable long-term solution for preventing squirrels from climbing the trunk of the pear tree. The goal is to create a slick, wide barrier that the squirrel cannot grip or jump over. A metal baffle, often conical or stovepipe-shaped, should be installed around the trunk at a height of at least five to six feet from the ground. Since an Eastern Gray Squirrel can vertically jump about four feet, this height prevents them from leaping over the bottom edge of the barrier.
The baffle must extend outward at least two feet in diameter from the trunk. This wide, slippery surface is impossible for them to grip, ensuring the squirrel cannot maneuver around the edge to reach the bark.
For protection against aerial entry, a fine-mesh netting can be draped over the entire canopy of the pear tree. The netting must be secured tightly around the trunk’s base, ensuring there are no gaps. Some gardeners have found success wrapping flexible plastic bird netting loosely around the lower trunk; squirrels dislike the feeling of their feet getting tangled, which deters climbing.
Sensory and Taste Repellents
Repellents work by creating an unpleasant taste or smell that conditions squirrels to avoid the treated area. Taste-based repellents, particularly those containing capsaicin—the compound that gives chili peppers their heat—are commonly used. When a squirrel attempts to bite a treated pear, the capsaicin causes a mild, non-harmful irritation in its mouth and nose, discouraging it from feeding further.
These sprays require frequent reapplication, especially after rainfall or heavy dew, as water washes away the active ingredients. Avoid spraying the repellent directly onto the pears, as capsaicin can affect the fruit’s flavor and cause handling irritation. Instead, apply the spray to the leaves, branches, and the perimeter of the tree’s canopy.
Scent-based deterrents, such as concentrated peppermint oil or cinnamon, leverage the squirrel’s strong sense of smell. Squirrels are generally repelled by these intense, pungent odors. However, these natural oils are highly volatile and their effectiveness is short-lived in an outdoor environment.
To use scent repellents, saturate cotton balls with the oil or use a diluted spray mixture on nearby surfaces, not the fruit itself. The application needs to be refreshed daily or every few days to maintain a sufficient level of odor. Scent deterrents are best employed as a temporary measure or as a secondary defense alongside physical barriers.
Strategic Tree and Yard Maintenance
Preventing easy access to the pear tree is just as important as installing physical barriers or repellents. Squirrels are capable of leaping seven to ten feet horizontally from a launching point. Therefore, any branches hanging within ten feet of a fence, roof, utility wire, or adjacent tree should be trimmed back significantly.
Eliminating these “launch pads” ensures that squirrels must climb the trunk from the ground, where the baffle can effectively stop them. Maintaining a clean area beneath the tree is another important step in resource management. Fallen pears attract squirrels and other pests to the immediate area, conditioning them to view the tree as a food source.
Promptly cleaning up any dropped fruit reduces the localized food reward that attracts them. During the ripening season, removing other external food sources, such as bird feeders, can also lower the squirrel population pressure on your pear tree. Squirrels are also known to seek moisture from fruit during dry periods, so providing a separate, accessible water source nearby may reduce their motivation to damage the pears.