Disappearing grapes (forum)

Grant starts with ...
Happy New Year to all! I'm wondering if anyone has a better suggestion for getting rid of my prime grape stealing suspect, than poison which is my last resort. My golden muscat is producing a wonderful crop for its first year (over 100 bunches) and they are easily the best grapes i've tasted.
After the flying foxes starting in on them i have put up bird netting which is working well, but every night i find more bunches stripped and i can only imagine that rats are the culprits. I have set 2 traps with pumpkin seeds on them but who would choose this over these sweet grapes? Any better ideas than baits?

Time: 2nd January 2012 7:58am

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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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Time: 2nd January 2012 8:58am

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au0rey says...
Grant, I had fruits (plums, peaches) disappearing at night and the culprits were cute bushtail possums. Fortunately they didnt tcome for the grapes up under my patio roof(touch wood) and I have netted the whole vine. I woke up in the night (cos I can hear them jumping onto my roof) to spy on them and see how they steal. If you really want to know the cuprits, you may want to do likewise hehe...or set some traps with delicious fruits to catch them. Poisoning rats would be okay? But we wont want to be poisoning possums....

Hope you solve the mystery soon.

Time: 2nd January 2012 11:36am

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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?





Time: 3rd January 2012 8:48am

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au0rey says...
You may want to try looking up www.greenharvest.com.au. They sell some stuff there which you can try.

Time: 3rd January 2012 10:49am

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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.

Time: 3rd January 2012 9:30pm

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Grant says...
I've decided to make some of my own bags out of midgee mesh, we'll see how they go. Should also double well for F fly.

Time: 4th January 2012 5:13pm

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

Time: 5th January 2012 3:17pm

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Grant says...
Still trying to org. pics, but it seems that i may have been slandering the much maligned rat. I found a feather inside my bird netting stuck to a damaged grape. There was a small opening in my netting against the house which i have now plugged and the last 2 nights not a grape lost. Some nocturnal feathered fruit eating creature might have to go hungry now. I almost feel bad cause these grapes are unbelievably good!!

Time: 9th January 2012 1:39pm

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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.


Time: 9th January 2012 4:09pm

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john says...
Noisy miner?? More like Indian Miner.

Time: 9th January 2012 4:24pm

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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.

Time: 9th January 2012 11:34pm

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john says...
Ok ,I won't rule it out but I've not come across them eating fruit. I have seen Lewin's honeyeater and Yellow faced honeyeaters and Indian mynahs.

Time: 10th January 2012 8:56am

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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


Time: 10th January 2012 1:27pm

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Diana says...
Hi Grant,

Grapes disappear at night at our place in Brisbane (a few eaten, half eaten or whole bunches gone)- in our case it's rats. Rats love fruit.

Diana.

Time: 10th January 2012 5:38pm

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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.

Time: 10th January 2012 8:11pm

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amanda says...
Grant - if u set a rat trap or put bait out - u will get the rats. I have dogs - so I put my baits in a bucket with a tight fitting lid (ie: a dog proof one) and cut a rat-entry hole in the bottom part. Stick the baits inside put the lid on and away u go.

The bucket also keeps the bait out of the elements. U can usually pick up cheap buckets like this at some supermarkets - they sell off their used olive buckets etc for a $1...very handy for a gardener! (IGA in WA)

Mice and rats eat a perfect hole in my passionfruit...little thieves..! grr. Mice will go in there too.

Time: 10th January 2012 11:41pm

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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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Time: 11th January 2012 11:06am

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au0rey says...
Looks like I am not the only gardener fighting off thieves hehe...I just returned the possum spikes that I bought for the fences to the nursery, they dont work. Our problem is mainly non-native birds eg mynahs and possums.

Time: 11th January 2012 5:04pm

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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.. ;-)

Time: 13th January 2012 12:41am

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coastie says...
What about some flashing fairy lights at night, near the vines, there are even some that are solar powered.I have some solar spotlights which I direct at the passionfruit vine, seems to work there, some of the fruit were being chewed but the lights have put a stop to that.

Time: 13th January 2012 8:58am

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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...


Time: 13th January 2012 11:52pm

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MaudieB says...
We too have a grape thief eating our delicious Isabellas. Whatever it is eats only the flesh, leaving the skins and seeds. We are on the mid north coast. We've spotted the creature once in the daytime high up on a ledge and it resembles a rat but hard to tell.

Time: 4th February 2016 8:55am

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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.

Time: 4th February 2016 8:57am

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