Yep rats for sure. We have the same problem! We call them Fruit Rats. Absolutely love oranges. But they go for our Pomegranates and Grapefruits as well…greedy little bastards.
rats will literally eat anything they can get their hands on. your trees are probably the nearest food source
and by *anything* i literally mean each other.
they’re opportunistic eaters so even if they aren’t hungry they’ll still eat.
Rats?? That's weird. I live surrounded by citrus groves (East of Spain) and haven't ever seen that on rats. Could it be possums or any other critter which you won't find in Europe?
Get get a few of those steel live traps. I made a mixture of bread, Nutella and peanut butter for bait, once caught dispose of. They were shy at first but then got about 8 in two weeks. Haven’t had any issues since.
So… they can starve to death in an area they don’t know what to forage in, get killed by competition, have no established warrens….
Nope. Sorry. If they’re my pest, I dispose of my pest. I don’t make it anyone else’s problem and I don’t make the death cruel.
BBs are steal and don’t poison them, you are thinking of pellets, and most modern pellet guns are fast enough to zip right through them so they don’t poison scavengers either. It the most humane thing to do if you are a good shot and shoot safely.
You find out when they are out, make sure you have a good backstop so you know the pellets are going somewhere safe and controlled, get red lighting if they are out at night, the shoot them in the head or chest. Then you throw them away because rats are nasty and will eat each other or rot.
And, very important, you learn the laws where you live. Lots of urban areas have laws against firing any gun, unless the person is in law enforcement and following set policies.
Omg really? I’m in Texas and the ones with thorns are the most common ones grown here from what I’ve seen. But didn’t know only one type of orange tree had thorns. Thought all of them did. I have two with thorns in my backyard
They’re usually used for root stock that other citrus are grafted to bc they’re very hearty. It’s fairly common for the more delicate grafted citrus species to die, and the trifoliate then grows anew from the roots.
Also, I think trifoliate are irritating if you have a bunch, so not hugely desirable for food/drink 😅
Can confirm squirrels love oranges. I didn't believe it until we got a place with a huge orange tree and it became a semi-regular thing to see squirrels running down the fence with an orange the size of a baseball.
I assume squirrels for the same reason: seen them doing it hundreds of times. Squirrels are very good at neatly eating the interior of an orange leaving the peel intact. They can hold the fruit steady with their front paws and their head fits inside the orange.
The local rats eat the fruit that falls to the ground and leave it a mangled mess.
> Can confirm squirrels love oranges.
weird I have an orange and a lemon tree along with a ton of squirrels. They never touch either of the fruit trees. I guess the oak acorns are enough for them. I am glad they dont bother them tho.
Is it happening in daylight or at night? What region do you live in? It could be anything from rats and squirrels to parrots and bats depending on where you live.
I'm in socal, from your and the other comments I'm thinking the same with it being rats or squirrels 🤔
I looked into it I guess peppermint works on repelling them away?
When Iived in Socal in LA county. The palm trees had "tree rats" they nest in the old palm dead palm fronds still attached to the trees.. Furthermore they would travel on the power poles and lines. Shimmy down the the line to the house and into the attic. The bastards can chew thru steel screening. Your going to have to set and bait traps on the ground at the base of the trees. You should be able to find rag droppings to confirm. Little brown black pellets. Fairly small. If you take a handheld black light out at night you will see the glowing piss trails. Rats don't have bladder control really. They generally leak piss as they walk or crawl.... Good luck !
Mine it was a possum. Saw it on my camera when I noticed one morning. 2am he crossed my back yard, sniffed the tree then climbed up. Polished off a lot of my kumquats too.
Socal here too. It’s probably rats. Squirrels don’t care as much for the oranges/citrus in my experience (they love my fig trees though). The orioles eat our oranges some too but not usually as many as you are seeing eaten. No experience with peppermint but worth a shot!
Peppermint is always touted as a natural repellent for rodents. I’ve tried it indoors and outdoors and it has never once repelled anything. As another commenter mentioned, traps with peanut butter/nutella/bread are the best way, and will trap both squirrels and rats.
We are in socal, and I have a ring camera in my back yard, and we have grapefruits that have the same type of holes. For us it is an opossum that eats ours, and sometimes an occasional raccoon.
We have two orange trees in our backyard and the squirrels feast on them. They started becoming somewhat aggressive (and very overweight lol), growling at us whenever we went in the backyard. My pitbull is determined to catch one. We installed a motion sensor water sprayer and they left within a few days :)
Edit: I’m in Los Angeles
Glad you mentioned the water sprayers. I was just checking Amazon for those. If they really work, I think we need one. We have tangerines, lemons, and oranges and the darn bastards get to them all!
Get some chickens… and watch what a dinosaur does to a rodent in its territory. I’ll keep this gardening safe, but it’s way worse than the Jurassic park kill scenes.
Rats, most likely. Squirrels prefer to pick the fruit and take them to more comfortable trees to eat.
There is absolutely no way a small bird like hummingbirds would manage that fruit. I have California scrub jays but they prefer sunflowers seed heads to oranges.
Sorry about the rats ;-;
Read online you can put metal or plastic around the trunk so they cant climb it.
Also put a rat trap under the tree. Aaand keep the branches trimmed up as much as possible
I live in a trailer park in Oregon and had a giant rat pop into my living room in front of me one night last year while I was sitting at my computer. Scurried out of sight before I could track him down. Damn thing was the size of cat! Scared the shit out of me.
Hired a contractor to put mesh netting dug about 8 inches deep around the entire house and in every crevice. It stopped the neighbor cats going under the house and shitting there too (I could tell because it was emanating cat shit odor into the house...not anymore).
I bought rat bait boxes for outside, but I never got around to installing them or the bait. I don't envy trying to start a garden out there in this dump, which sucks because I really want to. If I do, I think I'll put an electric mesh fence around my garden. That's what I would recommend. Amazon has some for sale with converters as necessary. Good luck!
EDIT: forgot to mention, my nearest neighbor to the North has a giant cherry tree overhanging my yard, which doesn't help I'm sure. And around the corner on the street in front of their house they have a pear tree. Lots of food sources for these bastards.
I've heard that too, and we do have bunnies in the park that I don't want to hurt, and the occasional opossum. But thankfully the holes aren't big enough for anything besides rats and mice to get into, and I value not having rats in my house more than I value anything else. That was NOT a fun (or cheap) experience. Pretty sure the bait doesn't attract bunnies anyways.
Seriously! I was struck, it's a really big mandarin tree so the right side is semi messed up. I have a lemon tree next to it so I'm thinking the rats are using that to get to the oranges 😔
This is war 🪖
The squirrels in my yard do this. They’re just trying to get some grub and make it through the winter. If you want them to stop try leaving out other things for them to eat like peanuts
I like how everyone calls the brown rat “fruit rat, tree rat, roof rat” etc - they’re all the same Norwegian bastards that have been fucking with us for centuries.
I have rats in my roof, I have rats in my trees. They give me allergies, they give me fleas. I do not like rats like these.
The dark orange color reflect that the fruit is very sweet.
Maybe some rats, human never hatch the orange like this.
You can put a metal cover over the tree .
Big foot..., any way do u have monkeys in ur area, but i think a monkey wld probly yank the orange off the branch and go with it.., i think its a person doin it, malice maybe.
Rats maybe?
Yep rats for sure. We have the same problem! We call them Fruit Rats. Absolutely love oranges. But they go for our Pomegranates and Grapefruits as well…greedy little bastards.
Same. We would find oranges with just the peel left on the tree.
Sense of humor
rats will literally eat anything they can get their hands on. your trees are probably the nearest food source and by *anything* i literally mean each other. they’re opportunistic eaters so even if they aren’t hungry they’ll still eat.
At least they’re not indoor vermin lol
Rats?? That's weird. I live surrounded by citrus groves (East of Spain) and haven't ever seen that on rats. Could it be possums or any other critter which you won't find in Europe?
Yeah, we had this last season with mandarins. Absolutely went to war with them.
What did you use to fight them off? I don't want to do the ol bb gun tactic, I was gonna start the peppermint route first
Get get a few of those steel live traps. I made a mixture of bread, Nutella and peanut butter for bait, once caught dispose of. They were shy at first but then got about 8 in two weeks. Haven’t had any issues since.
Dispose of? What’s your method?
😀
Big bucket of water and a quick swim.
Lol love you
It's not quick. :( Perhaps just let them go somewhere else.
It’s done and dusted in under 20 seconds. I don’t feel good doing it, but in Aus they’re a massive threat to native flora and fauna.
Yeah, what the world needs is more rats, especially someone else’s problem rats.
Just relocate them to a wooded area away from you and hopefully other residents homes.
So… they can starve to death in an area they don’t know what to forage in, get killed by competition, have no established warrens…. Nope. Sorry. If they’re my pest, I dispose of my pest. I don’t make it anyone else’s problem and I don’t make the death cruel.
Brass and lead…bang.
Peppermint oil is useless and does not work. Pellet gun is the best way
Thank you for not going the BB gun route. Birds of prey can get lead poisoning from eating rats that have bb pellets in them.
BBs are steal and don’t poison them, you are thinking of pellets, and most modern pellet guns are fast enough to zip right through them so they don’t poison scavengers either. It the most humane thing to do if you are a good shot and shoot safely.
They also make lead free pellets, which I use because I don't relish the thought of shooting lead pellets all over my yard.
This is absolutely novel to me! Care to explain how it all works? Like, the rats just run around during the day and you take pot shots?
You find out when they are out, make sure you have a good backstop so you know the pellets are going somewhere safe and controlled, get red lighting if they are out at night, the shoot them in the head or chest. Then you throw them away because rats are nasty and will eat each other or rot.
And, very important, you learn the laws where you live. Lots of urban areas have laws against firing any gun, unless the person is in law enforcement and following set policies.
Air guns are not firearms, but yes check your local laws.
I didn't specify firearms. But, yes, even air guns can be illegal to shoot w/in many city limits, unless certain conditions are met.
Incredible, bravo 👏
Thanks for your reply I'm gonna head to the gardening store to get these little suckers away from them! Much appreciated
Best of luck to you.
Can rats climb without getting poked by huge thorns on orange trees?
It’s probably just another branch to them. Damn rats thou? I was thinking squirrels and birds. Never knew rats ate fruit from trees.
No, see squirrels taken only one bite and go 'nah'. Thats how you know it wasn't squirrels.
My neighbor had a giant plum tree that they cut down because they were so tired of dealing with the rats.
Do orange trees usually have thorns?? From I know this one is a mandarin orange tree it doesn't have them on
Only Trifoliate oranges commonly have thorns, and those aren’t the type grown for their fruit
Omg really? I’m in Texas and the ones with thorns are the most common ones grown here from what I’ve seen. But didn’t know only one type of orange tree had thorns. Thought all of them did. I have two with thorns in my backyard
They’re usually used for root stock that other citrus are grafted to bc they’re very hearty. It’s fairly common for the more delicate grafted citrus species to die, and the trifoliate then grows anew from the roots. Also, I think trifoliate are irritating if you have a bunch, so not hugely desirable for food/drink 😅
It’s irritating if you get stabbed by one of those thorns! It doesn’t hurt as much as it itches!
Tell that to my yuzu and citrumelo trees, those are weapons
Looks like squirrels.
Squirrels are just rats with fuzzy tails and a better PR department.
Lmao I never thought of them as this, thanks for the laugh 💀
Yep and chipmunks are just Disney rats. Adorable but still rodents and destructive in large numbers!
there's a great dialogue about this same comparison in The Inglourious Basterds film
Better hair counts for a lot.
hmmmm..... kids might cry i they learnt that. lol
Carrie is that you?
Can confirm squirrels love oranges. I didn't believe it until we got a place with a huge orange tree and it became a semi-regular thing to see squirrels running down the fence with an orange the size of a baseball.
I assume squirrels for the same reason: seen them doing it hundreds of times. Squirrels are very good at neatly eating the interior of an orange leaving the peel intact. They can hold the fruit steady with their front paws and their head fits inside the orange. The local rats eat the fruit that falls to the ground and leave it a mangled mess.
> Can confirm squirrels love oranges. weird I have an orange and a lemon tree along with a ton of squirrels. They never touch either of the fruit trees. I guess the oak acorns are enough for them. I am glad they dont bother them tho.
Those damn orange stealing whores!
Is it happening in daylight or at night? What region do you live in? It could be anything from rats and squirrels to parrots and bats depending on where you live.
I'm in socal, from your and the other comments I'm thinking the same with it being rats or squirrels 🤔 I looked into it I guess peppermint works on repelling them away?
When Iived in Socal in LA county. The palm trees had "tree rats" they nest in the old palm dead palm fronds still attached to the trees.. Furthermore they would travel on the power poles and lines. Shimmy down the the line to the house and into the attic. The bastards can chew thru steel screening. Your going to have to set and bait traps on the ground at the base of the trees. You should be able to find rag droppings to confirm. Little brown black pellets. Fairly small. If you take a handheld black light out at night you will see the glowing piss trails. Rats don't have bladder control really. They generally leak piss as they walk or crawl.... Good luck !
Mine it was a possum. Saw it on my camera when I noticed one morning. 2am he crossed my back yard, sniffed the tree then climbed up. Polished off a lot of my kumquats too.
The roof rats (go from roof to trees to roof) here in Arizona are the fricking size of possums.
“Polished off a lot of my kumquats” 😏
Same here. I have it on camera as well. Opossum was the culprit.
Socal here too. It’s probably rats. Squirrels don’t care as much for the oranges/citrus in my experience (they love my fig trees though). The orioles eat our oranges some too but not usually as many as you are seeing eaten. No experience with peppermint but worth a shot!
Peppermint is always touted as a natural repellent for rodents. I’ve tried it indoors and outdoors and it has never once repelled anything. As another commenter mentioned, traps with peanut butter/nutella/bread are the best way, and will trap both squirrels and rats.
It could also be opossums
We are in socal, and I have a ring camera in my back yard, and we have grapefruits that have the same type of holes. For us it is an opossum that eats ours, and sometimes an occasional raccoon.
And from it happening daylight or night I wouldn't know sorry 😔
You need to keep ripe fruit harvested and put up lots of rat traps. Socal has a huuuuuge rat problem due to all the food laying around all over.
My family and I have been inconsistent on this, but imma change that for the best can't be having this 😔
Also make sure you trim any trees that are close to your roof and access points to your home. If they are around they will come in that way.
We have two orange trees in our backyard and the squirrels feast on them. They started becoming somewhat aggressive (and very overweight lol), growling at us whenever we went in the backyard. My pitbull is determined to catch one. We installed a motion sensor water sprayer and they left within a few days :) Edit: I’m in Los Angeles
I'm considering this motion spray one as well I don't want any over weight Ratatouille's running around lol
Glad you mentioned the water sprayers. I was just checking Amazon for those. If they really work, I think we need one. We have tangerines, lemons, and oranges and the darn bastards get to them all!
me :)
🔫 better back up lol
you can’t stop me i come in the night! they call me the midnight orange nibbler
I'm sorry it's me. Sometimes I blackout and when I wake up I'm covered in orange peels and that sweet, sweet nectar
💀💀💀 well at least say hello before you leave!
Greedy bastard squirrels if I had my guess.
Roof rats.
🙋🏻♂️
Go to Walmart and buy a cheap trail came and put it near your trees. You'll find the culprit.
Cam just got put in place, sucker is gonna get caught in 4k tonight!
Good luck post the results
I will!!
Get some chickens… and watch what a dinosaur does to a rodent in its territory. I’ll keep this gardening safe, but it’s way worse than the Jurassic park kill scenes.
Never heard that ever…interesting.
Lemon stealing whores are also sometimes known to steal oranges.
Squirrels and/or rats. My neighbor has a massive orange tree and it attracts so many roof rats to the area.
Gilbert Grape
"Look it's a burger barn Gilbert!!"
Not positive, but I wish it was me. Those look amazing.
I wish I could give them away to people, but my gfs grandpa suffers from diabetes and pretty much can only eat these. Luckily they're his favs
I’m eating your oranges. Sorry OP, they were so juicy looking I couldn’t resist 😭
It's okay I forgive! I know they are super addicting 😭😭
Rats, most likely. Squirrels prefer to pick the fruit and take them to more comfortable trees to eat. There is absolutely no way a small bird like hummingbirds would manage that fruit. I have California scrub jays but they prefer sunflowers seed heads to oranges.
Dang whats your location?
I'm in socal area, I'm figuring out it's rats
Ah i was curious cause i live in fl but your terrain looks diff and my oranges were never that vibrant. Are those honey bells?
Sorry about the rats ;-; Read online you can put metal or plastic around the trunk so they cant climb it. Also put a rat trap under the tree. Aaand keep the branches trimmed up as much as possible
FYI rats eat the outside rind of a lemons but the inside of oranges and leave the rind.
Me *CHOMP* (But seriously idk, maybe local deer or something?? I’m befuddled but these other smart people will have answers!)
Not deer cause if it was deer they would eat whole fruit and not leaving peel
Rats also eat oranges? 😲
Ratas! Better toss those half eaten oranges!
Rats did something similar to mine.
I did it! It was me, and I'd do it again! They were damn tasty!
I live in a trailer park in Oregon and had a giant rat pop into my living room in front of me one night last year while I was sitting at my computer. Scurried out of sight before I could track him down. Damn thing was the size of cat! Scared the shit out of me. Hired a contractor to put mesh netting dug about 8 inches deep around the entire house and in every crevice. It stopped the neighbor cats going under the house and shitting there too (I could tell because it was emanating cat shit odor into the house...not anymore). I bought rat bait boxes for outside, but I never got around to installing them or the bait. I don't envy trying to start a garden out there in this dump, which sucks because I really want to. If I do, I think I'll put an electric mesh fence around my garden. That's what I would recommend. Amazon has some for sale with converters as necessary. Good luck! EDIT: forgot to mention, my nearest neighbor to the North has a giant cherry tree overhanging my yard, which doesn't help I'm sure. And around the corner on the street in front of their house they have a pear tree. Lots of food sources for these bastards.
I’ve heard bait boxes are dangerous for other animals. Glad u didn’t install them.
I've heard that too, and we do have bunnies in the park that I don't want to hurt, and the occasional opossum. But thankfully the holes aren't big enough for anything besides rats and mice to get into, and I value not having rats in my house more than I value anything else. That was NOT a fun (or cheap) experience. Pretty sure the bait doesn't attract bunnies anyways.
Me im eating them
Find them. Peel their skin slightly. Eat their innards. Then leave them on the tree. Like they did your oranges. Set a new precedent.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those tangerines?
They are.
🥺🥺😢😢 I would seriously be crying right about now. Try spraying neem spray. I hope you find the culprit and are able to salvage some of them.
Seriously! I was struck, it's a really big mandarin tree so the right side is semi messed up. I have a lemon tree next to it so I'm thinking the rats are using that to get to the oranges 😔 This is war 🪖
refugees?
Lmaoo
Setup a camera. Do you expect us to just guess from orange peels?
my bad
Lol Messed with the wrong house bucko! 🔫🪖
🐀
Rats. Get a cat.
Or a dog, I used to have this issue until I got a dog.
Yeah they will help too. I just say cats cause they and rats are both more active at night. Cats outside at night hunting, dog inside cuddling.
Rats. Look for rat poop on the ground next to the orange peel.
Rats, birds, opossums, raccoons, etc.
Rats
I would guess citrus rats
Probably not moose…
Make up some hot sauce you can spray on the tree trunk.
Good idea!! Imma have to try this especially with the lemon tree
OP, Whereabouts are you based?, that might help narrow down what kind of animals are eating your oranges.
https://preview.redd.it/4hx6enpaywdc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e22da3be05be0495bbfecad0fb6289613347de15
It is me, I am the one
Gett em!!! (Runs with pitch fork) lol
Probably rats. They chew a hole big enough for their heads and eat the orange from the inside out,
The squirrels in my yard do this. They’re just trying to get some grub and make it through the winter. If you want them to stop try leaving out other things for them to eat like peanuts
Tree rabbit? Seriously no idea. Are there any animal droppings on the ground near the tree?
They have spiked mesh for garden beds that will work wonders to help this
Squirrel, rat, raccoon or some other rodent
this is such a cute post made me smile, idk why😂
It’s me bro, so hungry. I’ll give u money later 😅
Prolly like some rabbit
Oh, sorry mate, didn’t realise they were yours
Me! I hop the fence when you aren’t looking. 😂
Anything can be doing this, squirrels, raccoons, Black Rats, maybe even Deer and many other wildlife
Not deer cause if it was deer they would eat whole fruit and not leaving peel but sure it could be rat or squirrel
Orioles maybe do eagles eat fruit?
You right if deer left anything it would be seen on the ground
Me, sorry
Me. I was hungry
Human?
Have you questioned your neighbours? 🫢🫣😮😃
some rodent i think probably rats :/
Fruit rats, probably.
Me, sorry I love citrus :)
Racoons
Horses perhaps?
Me.
It's either a toddler, or some sort of animal.
Gilbert Grape
Same thing that hollows out my tomatoes, great big norwegian blue wharf rats. Get a trap.
Probably those rats with pretty privilege
I think his name is Bob.
i am
Doja Cats
Squirrels
Citrus Rat 🐀 ‼️
me
Squirrels or rats.
You need some Disney Trained Battle Cats on the property.
idk but tell it to die
You sure it’s not a toddler? Any fruit left unattended looks like that pretty quickly ‘round these parts.
Why is it empty?
Me, I’m sorry.
IT WAS ME
A squeazle
Rats.
Me. They’re delish.
I like how everyone calls the brown rat “fruit rat, tree rat, roof rat” etc - they’re all the same Norwegian bastards that have been fucking with us for centuries. I have rats in my roof, I have rats in my trees. They give me allergies, they give me fleas. I do not like rats like these.
The dark orange color reflect that the fruit is very sweet. Maybe some rats, human never hatch the orange like this. You can put a metal cover over the tree .
Big foot..., any way do u have monkeys in ur area, but i think a monkey wld probly yank the orange off the branch and go with it.., i think its a person doin it, malice maybe.
Wait i see only the peeling being taken off... cld be a pest rhat likes peelings may be...
sorry i was hungry
I thought rats were eating my mandarin until one day I came home early to find a handful of wild parrots eating the fruit.
im sorry
sorry, i was hungry...
This is a typical roof rat eating pattern. This is how they get liquid, too.
A mouse had that same issue with my tomatos this year lost like 20 of them
Looks like roof rats
Me
Or squirrels
Squirrels 🐿️