I understand that most (actually I heard “all” but am afraid to use that) fruit trees are grown using nicotinoids. They take about a year to cycle out. Pinch off the first year’s blossoms to avoid harming pollinators with neonics. Sorry.
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“I understand that most (actually I heard “all” but am afraid to use that) fruit trees are grown using nicotinoids. They take about a year to cycle out. Pinch off the first year’s blossoms to avoid harming pollinators with neonics.”
I think @NotJrvedivici said he/she has had the tree for six years.
Can you share a reference or some context please?
Like this?
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Here, the thieves are usually squirrels. Grey squirrels are terrible peach stealers. They’ll strip a tree, hiding fruit who knows where. Chipmunks will also steal peaches. Ripe fruit attracts all the larger varmints: raccoons, opossums. groundhogs.
I think you mean Neonicotinoids, the more recently developed systemic insecticides. If those are used on sapling grafts, sold retail or wholesale, the trees should have flowers and fruit removed the first year for the plant’s health, as well as for pollinator protection.
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Thanks…poor speller here.
“Neonics” are a poor choice for anything edible, since they are systemic and absorbed by plant tissues. Their use on food crops is very restricted. Bee death from neonics is primarily from improper application, sprayers didn’t follow label directions.
The truth is that most pesticides, even some organic controls, are toxic to bees. Insecticides kill…well… insects! Common sense and some strategies can help minimize the impact of sprays. For example:
•With fruit trees, spray after flowers fall off to control Plum Curculio, Japanese Beetle
and other pests. No flowers=no bees.
•Avoid spraying flowers on vegetables like squash, or pick off the flowers before spraying. Always use non-systemic sprays/contact insecticides.
•Spraying in the evening, when squash flowers are usually closed, puts the sprays on the back side of the flowers when they open; less bee contact.
•Observe both the plant and pest. Maybe sprays can knock down pests before flowering begins and then you can reduce the need for controls during flowering.
•Know your bugs! Especially learn the larval and adult stages of predatory insects. sometimes, as with the Braconid wasp which kills tomato hornworms, you see neither, just the little white cocoons that emerge from the caterpillar before the tiny wasps hatch out. Avoid spraying these if you can help it. Give them time to work. In some cases, however, waiting can be dangerous to the plants.
Fire Blight on pears is transmitted largely by thrips-don’t wait to control thrips in Fire Blight prone regions.
Regions with severe viral pressure, common in viticultural areas, may need quick action if viral vectors are attacking plants. There are many plant viruses; all have no cure and infected plants should be destroyed.
Cucumber Beetles transmit a deadly Bacterial wilt to melons, as well as cucumbers. The bacterial wilt, Erwinia trachiephila, can spread quickly and is usually lethal.
In these cases, even low numbers of a pest can be catastrophic; don’t wait unless you don’t care if the crop is lost and you’re not near neighbors who garden. Disease causing pests can fly next door after your plants expire.
Gardening isn’t usually a plant it and forget it scenario. Like fishing, the more you understand, the more successful you become.
Here’s a good read on pesticides and toxicity to pollinators. This also includes information on fungicides.
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You are apparently quite knowledgeable about such things. I have a yard full of Texas natives and plenty of solitary bees, but I would love a hive, not so much for their honey but for the benefit of the bees. My neighbors on both sides have their yards treated for mosquitoes with some nasty garlicky smelling fog. I worry that their mosquito treatment may be dangerous to bees. I do not want to set them up in a dangerous place.
I generally find the way to control pests is to acquire some of their native natural predator, like the way wasps tackle ants, the possums tackle the ticks, and the owls and snakes get the vermin. I want some bats to feed on the mosquitoes.
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Mosquitos are best controlled as larvae. The Asian tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is currently a serious introduced pest in the USA. It bites during daylight hours, has light and dark stripes on it’s legs and can breed in a cupful of water. For this mosquito, the best controls are to eliminate anything which holds water: tarps, dump birdbaths weekly, sagging gutters which hold water, etc. Here, there are too many pools which cannot be drained, like where Water Chestnuts are grown. A bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis is used to kill mosquito larvae, using a backpack sprayer to add the bacteria (we use a liquid concentrate) to any water pool. This bacteria, marketed as Gnatrol, Aquabac and many other names, kills only fungus gnats, mosquitoes and black flies; it’s harmless to other insects and wildlife. Plus, it kills the insects before they reach the biting stage of adulthood. Apply it every 7–14 days, using the shorter interval during hot weather.
Unfortunately, bats are not good at controlling mosquitoes. They are mostly after moths and larger flying insects, like beetles, which fly higher and are easier to locate using sonar. Mosquitoes don’t bounce back much sound to the bats’ ears and the insects are usually close to the ground.
While there are plenty of native predators of mosquito larvae, Damselfly larvae and adults, young Dragonfly nymphs, fish, these mostly breed in larger bodies of water and avoid the small pools and puddles the Tiger Mosquito favors.
There are some misconceptions about many predators. Opossums may eat ticks, but they will not control them. Many are too small to be of interest and most will be on thin vegetation, waiting for a mammal to come by. Birds, wasps and ants are better tick hunters, but we have all these predators and still have plenty of ticks. Ticks spend much of their lives on animals, which makes them less accessible to predators.
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Another thing is that mosquitoes get used to insecticides with time. That’s a big problem in my country. What was effective a decade ago, is not as effective today.
The best thing, as you said, is to not let any water collect anywhere in the garden or at home. A fruit peel is enough to breed mosquitoes in the garden.
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Yes they do! That’s one reason bacterial controls generally work well. Bacteria mutate and adapt much faster than insects, countless generations per day.
When I cut bamboo for plant supports, I split the stumps so they won’t hold water and cut them so the stumps have no cups, have a cap of tissue. Like you mention, a fruit peel is enough for them.
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The community garden at work has a few fruit trees. The apricot was the first to be denuded of fruit, like overnight. There were apricot and peach pits lying around all over, I thought it was birds, but I know there are squirrels living in the basements of the old adobe buildings from the 1920s, so I’m guessing it was them. Birds tend to pick at them and leave them on the tree. Correct me if I’m wrong, but those pits were picked clean, and the chicken wire for ground squirrels wouldn’t deter the regular squirrels, I dont’ think.
Both ground squirrels and tree squirrels will strip fruit trees. And, both squirrels are excellent climbers. I saw ground squirrels stripping apricot trees in Colorado. Since there are usually groups of them, it takes very little time. If they can climb trees, most fencing is not an obstacle. I bet when no one was around, both squirrel types were at work. I’ve even seen groundhogs high up in peach trees. The lure of sweet, fragrant fruit!
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Sneaky little boogers- that’s all I have to say.
Without getting censored!
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I think it’s squirrels digging into my citrus tree pots. They may not care for the fruit (only my satsuma mandarin tree has fruit right now), and I’m surprised they are unscathed so far. They are also green, so could be that too.
Fish eye view of one of my satsuma.
Lots of flower buds on my other citrus, and my Makrut lime has lots of little fruits but most aren’t mature before they drop off. 
Finally got the dwarf Meyer lemon to bud too. Fingers crossed they’ll grow.
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My parents had citrus in Florida. Despite many squirrels being around, the rodents never bothered their citrus. A lot of mammals really are repelled by citrus.
I had a pack rat that would climb across the yard on the lath over the back porch, steal an orange off the tree, and carry it off in its mouth every day around 7:30 in the morning.
My daughter gave me two large bottles of what was labeled a citrus cleaner for Mothers Day. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why. I’m not a big fan of housekeeping.
Apparently she remembered that I was looking for a cat deterrent in my new landscape! Does this work to deter cat surprises?
Pack Rats/ Wood Rats are odd rodents! I wonder if it was eating the fruit, seeds, both, or just decorating its home. I caught an Eastern Bushy-tail Wood Rat in a live trap. It looked a lot like a small Chinchilla.
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