What's eating my figs?

[JerryHaskins]

About 10 years ago I planted a fig tree---Brown Turkey, I think.

It is about 15 feet tall and 18 feet wide and is producing lots of figs this year.

It has not produced many figs until this year, but production has increased from year to year.

This year I researched how to prevent birds from pecking ripe figs and I hung about 25 large aluminum pie pans and a large plastic owl in the fig tree.

It has not helped.

Yesterday I picked and tossed 30 ripe figs that had been partially eaten. See attached photo of a typical partially eaten ripe fig.

This morning I tossed 10 more.

It seems to happen at night. I am thinking maybe raccoons.

Anybody got a clue what is eating my figs?

Better yet, what to do about it?

Thanks.

[Sun City Linda]

Rats are always a good guess

[swellcat]

Your state bird is mighty fond of figs.

[mjc]

Small critters that either climb or fly...basically, there are too many to list and not enough info, even with the pic to narrow it down.

And yeah, your guess is on the list.

[dmforcier]

Rats love figs. They will come from down the block and across the street. Got some traps you can set out? (Might not get anything if they have an aerial route into the tree.)



Oh heck, I missed Linda's post.

[JerryHaskins]

Thanks, all.

I will set up a bird camera and try to get a photo of the culprit.

[Father'sDaughter]

Good luck finding your culprit. Covering the tree or covering the figs themselves might be your only defense. I've read where some fig grower who don't have large trees actually use tulle or organza bags to cover individual figs to protect them from birds.

I have a couple of dozen baby figs on my tree and I'm already trying to decide what rout I may have to take to protect them.

[Worth1]

I gave up on my fig tree this year and stopped watering it.
Every time it has put on new growth the deer eat it back.
I haven't even looked at it since the last eating, I bet it is dead.
The terrain it is on a fence is out of the question, I would have to deer fence the whole place.
The other option is to lodge a complaint to the game warden about the lady and her dam deer and rat feeder.
I dont think that would help at all.
Worth

[kurt]

Our rats here,the Norwegian Black,we have a nice brown one,then my favorite the Gambian Jungle Rat(more vegan than your garbage/container tribe).In my neighborhood they all exhibit the same eating trait,they will snatch food if close to human,hide eat,(I usually see skin casings devoid of meat)left behind ,squirrels will run take back to nest.Our birds will pick,no choose,on to next,pick,always wary,skittish.If nocturnal rat first,possum if any,birds feed during day.Wife loves them,I detest that gooey,datelike texture,and put it in the stalest type of cookie,you have that mouth gluing shut "where's the milk"momement I had at first encounter with the "FIG NEWTON".

[JerryHaskins]

I think I found the culprit (at least one of the culprits---seems like lots of animals besides humans like ripe figs).

Raccoons like them, too.

See attached.

[GrowingCoastal]

Sorry to see that. I don't think you can stop them from eating your figs.

What sort of 'birdcam' have you got? Seems to work well.

[JerryHaskins]

Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

Sorry to see that. I don't think you can stop them from eating your figs.

What sort of 'birdcam' have you got? Seems to work well.

Thanks.

I may circle the fig tree with an electric fence. Not sure I want to go to the trouble and expense. I electrified my bird feeders with an electric fence charger to keep deer and raccoons out of the sunflower seeds, and it works.

It's a Wingscapes Birdcam 2.0 which is no longer made.

LINK

I am not thrilled with it. It is fairly hard to customize the set up, has a manual lens focal length distance setting, and night time flash photos suck the batteries down. I can set it to not take flash photos, but sometimes I want night time photos.

Those D-cell Duracell alkaline batteries get expensive.

I bought the 120-volt A/C adapter to save batteries, and it was a separate fairly expensive purchase, as I recall. But that involves pulling an extension cord.

I have some game cams that do a better job. The design of game cams has improved a lots in recent years.

[GrowingCoastal]

Thanks for your answer. I keep looking for a back yard bird cam that goes direct to computer without batteries. Hard to find. My old web cam for skype etc doesn't quite do it but one has been ok outside for years next to a hummingbird feeder. Not suitable for much else in the yard. Still works great, a $40. logitech .

[Fritz77]

My figs get eaten too. In my case the culprits are starlings. At that time of the year (usually October) they also love to eat my persimmons. By the way I loved those pictures of the raccoon. For me it's such an exotic animal. I'm sure you didn't enjoy having him in your garden though...

[swellcat]

Los bandidos enmascarados.

Reckon they're cuter on the lake bank where I saw them the other mornin' . . . Mama with three trailing mini-me's. (They like crawfish and figs; they do have good taste, I'd say.)