Disappearing grapes

coastie says...
Good morning G. I live a little further up the coast from you, I have the black muscat really looking good right now, the best ever and the only way is to bag the bunches like I do with tomatoes for fruit fly, the end result is much better fruit and nothing seems to get through the bags, mine are not quite ready yet, I reckon another 4 weeks to go.

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Grant says...
Thanks C & A. Coastie the bags are an idea i hadn't thought of, i'm wondering though if they will just chew right through, the little buggers seem to gnaw their way through just about anything. What sort of bags do you use?

coastie says...
I got mine from 'bayside varieties' they are a strong nylon mesh bag with a drawstring at the top, they worked better than the other ones mentioned, the other ones are easily torn by birds and other pests.They would be good for other things but not for grapes or tomatoes, they dont have a drawstring either.
Hope this is a help.

au0rey says...
Let us know how they go and pictures would be great.

Chris says...
My black muscatel grapes are also ripening nicely. Caught sulphur crested cockatoos with whole bunches eating them on top of the light pole. Caught a currawong gobbling them too. Throw in the odd noisy miner bird and I will be throwing a net over them before there's nothing left.
I have rats and mice in the area, but they never touch even the low hanging fruit. Prefer passionfruit with the seeds.

Chris says...
No John, noisy miner. I do know the difference, do you? They'll eat fruit if there's not much in the way of nectar around--esp in the middle of summer.

Grant says...
Any idea if these birds are nocturnal though, they were only disappearing at night. I do have noisy mynas and currawongs but i didn't think they were active at night

Grant says...
Rats sure are harder to stop! In my case though the disappearing grapes seem to have stopped with the plugging of the gap in the netting. So along with the feather inside the net, anonymous bird is remaining suspect #1 here.

Diana says...
Rats are deterred by netting, but I suppose it depends how desperate they are.
We are having a baiting campaign at the moment. The bucket sounds good but rats could take the bait out with them if it is loose. I am using commercial Tomcat bait stations, in which bait is anchored inside so no dogs or children can get it and rats can't drag bait outside the box. They are cheap. They seem to be working well. Also our fox terrier cross has caught a few rats this week- possibly because they were already half poisoned and on the ground (that's the problem with using dogs, they aren't arboreal. I wish we had a python, although my spouse pointed out that if we had one, it would also eat the chooks).

Passionfruit seem OK, but rodents were getting into the grapes, pumpkin and corn. They also gnawed all apples as they ripened.

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amanda says...
lol...off topic - but I know why lots of grapes go missing..? it's called "kids"...stole heaps from the cover of the dunny cart lanes in Perth myself.. ;-)

amanda says...
What about those plastic frogs that croak when anything crosses their path?? I know pensioners that use these as a sort of security system..they even work thru glass doors, and at night.

Or battery operated electric fencing wire...used to contain dogs...most of the time they get zapped once and never try it again...

MaudieB says...
Forgot ta add that poisoning for rats not an option as our Labrador will seek out anything edible including a dead rat I imagine.