Waiting for my 3 year old EBT to ripen this big beautiful fig.  Almost 3 in. in diameter!  Mmmmmm I can just taste it now!

     


Turn your back for one minute and...


 

Would've been the first ripe fig from this tree.  :(

LOL, I feel your pain Danny!!! Ive been fighting rats for my LSU Purple for 3 weeks now! I managed to get about 1/3 of the figs. Organza bags work for birds but the rats just chew the figs through the bags. It's a pain in the A$$!!!!

I hate seeing that, Danny.  I have some bird netting on hand that I will be putting to use.

Birds or something else got my first Galicia Negra and Genovese Nero this year.  Sucks!

Frank, I'll probably use the bird netting myself.  See if I can get away with organza bags and 
some pie tins tied to the trees for now.

I put an owl that has a bobble head (home depot) on the fence above my trees.  I haven't seen any birds for days. lol..

The only proven solution is to overwhelm the birds with production. I have several hundred blueberry plants and people ask what I do about the birds. My answer is just enjoy them. At this time there are not enough birds in the county to ruin my blueberry harvest.I am gradually starting to get the same results with my figs. In addition to many other species I guess I have a resident population of at least 25 mocking birds. I often watch as they destroy the fig I assumed would be ready for me in a couple of days. For the commercial producer and the ones with limited space,well you have a problem which is hard to overcome.

I have a fig cage with netting all around. See pic. These birds are relentless, they have been squeezing through gaps and relentlessly attacking my Negronne. I have battened down the gaps. Waiting for organza bags from china, taking forever. They better arrive before the Pretos ripen. Otherwise I will get biblical with these birds.

I know the feeling. Bird netting + a cage is the way to go. Here's a pic of my cage:

We have crows.  They circle, and they call.  It's a fig party!!  More crow gangs come.  Not much stops them, and our trees are in ground over 1.4 acres.  Here and there.  I spot one ripening, and I take the closest fig leaf, and shade the fig from peering eyes above.  I got a perfectly ripe Kadota with that method this morning.

Doesn't stop the coons and possums from below, though, and they can chew threw those stupid nylon bags like chewing gum!    We protect the trunks from vole damage and the roots from gophers with gopher wire baskets, but birds simply suck!  It is what it is!

Suzi

So glad I only had wasps, ants and slugs to contend with this year. Took care of all 3, and now all my figs are damage-free after losing around 80% at the start of the ripening season.

loquat1, what are you saying?  You lost 80% of fig trees to slugs, ants and wasps?  I could understand slugs. 

Suzi

Huh? Where did you get that idea Suzi? No, not the trees. I'm referring to the ripe figs. I was pulling my hair out trying to identify the culprit after initially thinking it was just ants, only to discover later on that all 3 pests were implicated.

At one point, I even suspected birds and/or squirrels without any evidence. I finally determined that wasps and slugs were the main culprits, with the ants just coming in after the event to clean up. You could call it team work, but I soon put a stop to their collaborative efforts. 

Camped out by the EBT for a good portion of the day and watched as a cardinal dive bombed the same fig over and over.  Discovered that it has a nest in a tree in my neighbors yard.  Now what?

Danny - Are you saying that netting is not a deterrent?

Costas, No I am not saying that.  I just don't have any bird netting on hand right now.