Remember all the trouble we had with the birds eating the papayas from our tree? Aggravation!!! We have the sweetest tree on the whole island but the birds discovered it and put it on their Bird Facebook. Soon the entire bird community was sneaking over and hollowing out our precious fruit.
We thought we had the problem licked when I sewed a cover for it.
But no, it only worked for a couple of weeks before they learned to crawl under it and continue eating. We redid the cover and completely surrounded the fruit making it inconvenient for us because we had to keep going up the ladder to undo the cover to check on it.
We climbed up to check this afternoon and found two large, beautiful half ripe papayas hollowed out.
So we've given up! Yes! We've thrown in the towel! Arrrrghhh! We picked all the green fruit and gave it to our neighbor who makes the most wonderful green papaya pickles. We had three bags full.
We're going to chop the tree down now like we did the other one and have it grow shoots.
It was getting too dangerous to climb up so high to reach the papayas anyway.
Hmmm... is this sounding like sour grapes?
By the time the trees start to bear fruit again, maybe the birds will have forgotten about the sweetest trees on the island.
Ah well... what the heck! They've started eating my cherry tomatoes anyway!
And if anyone should ever call you a bird brain, be proud!
We thought we had the problem licked when I sewed a cover for it.
But no, it only worked for a couple of weeks before they learned to crawl under it and continue eating. We redid the cover and completely surrounded the fruit making it inconvenient for us because we had to keep going up the ladder to undo the cover to check on it.
Eventually, the birds got desperate and devious. They learned that they could find teeny openings at the top and the side opening that we pinned together with clothes pins. One of the culprits were mejiros (tiny rice birds) who could somehow manage to get in the tiny openings.
We climbed up to check this afternoon and found two large, beautiful half ripe papayas hollowed out.
So we've given up! Yes! We've thrown in the towel! Arrrrghhh! We picked all the green fruit and gave it to our neighbor who makes the most wonderful green papaya pickles. We had three bags full.
We're going to chop the tree down now like we did the other one and have it grow shoots.
It was getting too dangerous to climb up so high to reach the papayas anyway.
Hmmm... is this sounding like sour grapes?
By the time the trees start to bear fruit again, maybe the birds will have forgotten about the sweetest trees on the island.
Ah well... what the heck! They've started eating my cherry tomatoes anyway!
And if anyone should ever call you a bird brain, be proud!
My, you are generous to your birds;-)
ReplyDeleteThere MUST be a way, somebody had to figure out how to keep the birds away from the papayas or we wouldn't have them in the stores. I think you have made the best of a bad situation: cut 'em down! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is both amazing and awful!
ReplyDeleteclever birds. I guess by making an enriched challenge you're training their brains to be even smarter. I can see we're doing the same by the intent thinking-look on the faces of squirrels.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you use a piece of screen to wrap that section of tree around? Make a large screen bubble.
ReplyDeleteWow! I didn't know the tree was so tall. I remember your propping up the tree. The garden catalogs or maybe Home Depot, have that flexible netting to put over crops to keep out critters, but it sounds like the Angry but Fed Birds could eat through the netting. Shucks. My last two baggies of frozen papaya will be gone soon. DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteThose little thieves!!! Hopefully they will forget about your sweet papayas when the tree starts producing again. SO sorry Kay!
ReplyDeleteI thought it must be about your sweet papayas when i looked at the post caption on my side bar and i was right.
ReplyDeleteDecided to change my comment a little, so deleted to start again.
ReplyDeleteBirds are very resourceful. We never really won in our battles over the fruit from two cherry trees.
Good luck in your continuing game of wits--or wills.
Maybe some wisdom from an old forest ranger applies. Back in the 1970s we were have problems in the Boise National Forest with porcupines killing trees by eating bark. I asked the ranger what he was doing about it. "Nothing," he said, "we've got a lot more trees than porcupines."
ReplyDeleteWhat was your bird-papaya ratio?
Dick: Sigh...
ReplyDeleteBirds: ALL the ripe papayas
Us: Nothing
What we don't understand is that there are a lot of papaya trees in the neighborhood, even with ripe fruit. The birds aren't attacking those... just ours.
Seems like your efforts are breeding a super bird that can't be stymied.
ReplyDeleteThat is a tall tree. Maybe they are just saving you a bad fall by making you cut it down. Wonder if they make a dwarf papaya.
My grandmother ate one almost everyday. She said they were good for her stomach.
well, at least someone's full! lol. Seriously, too bad though.
ReplyDeleteah POOP! darn birds, thats too bad, how do the people who sell them keep the birds off.
ReplyDeleteI really like Dick Klade's comment,, probably very true, there is no stopping them , the big farms probably have the same solution, the trees out number the birds, and they just atke a loss, still it doesn't make you feel any better does it.
Yeah, I was wondering if there is a dwarf papaya too. I had a really successful papaya "tree" (I don't think they are really trees, as such; they're not very woody.) once, but it grew too tall to pick and eventually petered out. I'll bet if you planted five in various spots, you would end up with two very successful papaya plants.
ReplyDeleteI would leave the tree to the birds and let them feast on the goodness it provides. I feed the squirrels, birds, and stray cats in our backyard. Just my way of loving the life around me.
ReplyDeletehow funny yet sad...birds won is certainly the TRUTH!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to get mad at the little pranksters, isn't it. But I think you might have better luck using cheesecloth. And it's easier to handle, too.
ReplyDeleteDo you like green papaya salad? Once a week we have that at a Thai restaurant, and it is da bomb! Next time you and Art come over, let's go there for lunch.
...Marianan
You certainly did your best to protect your fruit. Hopefully by the time you have fruit again, the birds will have a new favorite tree.
ReplyDeleteWe all love God's little creatures until they mess with our stuff!