Deterring those pesky climbing critters!
I happen to live where there are plenty of squirrels, opossums, and raccoons, such that trying to grow fruit or nut trees becomes quite a challenge! For example, I tried to grow persimmons but before they could even begin to ripen the raccoons climbed the young trees and literally many of the limbs in search for food.Though the biggest problem with my figs has been with the birds stripping off the fruit, I have also had a fair share of other climbing critters feasting on them. Though I have not caught any of the pesky devils in the act, the amount of broken limbs laying on the ground around fig ripening time is a tell tale sign that raccoons and possums have been at work.
Therefore, I came up with what appears to be a fairly good solution to climbing critters on fruit or nut trees. Referring to the photos (smaller one is a persimmon and the larger a fig tree), I bought some aluminum flashing and cut to length such that I could fashion a “tube” of the proper diameter (bigger caliber than the trunk to account for it’s growth etc.). I drilled through 
it at the ends and wired it together in a couple of spots with some copper wire in order to form the tube. I then trimmed branches off the trees such that there were none less than 4′ from the ground. Then I drilled some holes into the flashing and suspended it from the lowest branches (string, wire, or “ties”) so that the animals had nothing to “grip” when they tried to climb, and so far it seems to be working well. Of course, you need to make sure that your fruit or nut trees are not close to other trees limbs or stuctures such that leaping animals like squirrels can simply make the jump.
If you have any other ideas in this area, please share them (so long as they are humane!). Also, here is an interesting idea for repelling birds using monofilament line. I haven’t tried it yet so the verdict is still out.
