Herman, sounds like you have moles or voles, field mice have long tails and shorter noses. You can trap for them, check out garden supply places for traps  

Here you go BLB,You are right they are not real Field mice,they are one of the animals you named.

Herman,

Could be a mouse or vole.  You could put a mouse trap baited with apple next to the hole.  Cover trap and hole with a flower pot.

This technique worked for me with voles in my garden.

Womack

The wasps destroyed a half ripe fig of mine in 24 hours, there must have been about 20 wasps on a small fig to start.

Kathleen Black ,had some decent tasting fruits ,today after the third day without rain,tho the soil is still loaded with water.
The taste was in line with the excellent taste of 2010,and also the fruits got their normal color and composure ,as they should be.
This is after many fruits that were ,inferior tasting and full of water ,in a few periods ,in August and beginning of September.
This cultivar is rain tolerant but not infinitely rain tolerant,so now finally there is light at the end of the tunnel.
There are at least one third fruits left on tree from what it started with,so it could have been worse .but this year was the worse climatic conditions here in my location,since 1995 when my first tree "Florea and Home depot Brown Turkey and Celeste first got ripe fruits.
The first fruits on Florea was ok,but watery,Celeste dropped it's fruits and Home Depot Brown Turkey had insipid ripe fruits here in my climate which of course is not the best.
Those frustrations made me look and buy trees from every nursery I could find at the time,looking in the county Library and reading every book about fig trees I could find. I wrote down the addresses of all Nurseries they recommend,and wrote to those nurseries, asking to buy fig trees.
Well I should tell you that I already been unsuccessful in getting ripe fruits from :Pear plums,Cherry, Apricots,Apple,Quince,and others,not to mention I tried more than one cultivar,but the fungus and bugs did me in.
Boy,was I naive to think I could grow the same fruit trees that my father grew in Eastern Europe,here in NJ,and get decent fruits.

Herman, which cultivar do you consider infinitely rain tolerant or the one you consider the most rain tolerant for your location, in New Jersey?

Last year you thought that your Nero 2000 was the most rain tolerant. How did it compare to Kathleen's Black during the same rainy period, at your location?

Bob - Zone 5 Connecticut


Wish List: Any cold hardy figs that have been growing unprotected in zone 5, for the last 50 to 100 years

Robert ,Nero 600m is not ripe yet,because it is not as early as Kathleen black so I can't compare.
Nero 600M was very tolerant last year,but there is something different that come into play,with Kathleen black that is not the same with Nero 600M.
That is excessive heat and humidity,in addition to rain, play a roll in spoiling of fruits.
When late ripening cultivars ripe ,the excessive heat and humidity is gone,so the fruits ripe in better condition.
So comparison is possible only between figs that get ripe the same time.

Herman,
  I'm discouraged that you did not have good luck with Quince. I purchased a Quince tree this year and had high expectations. Do you remember what named cultivar it was?

 Thanks,
  Peter

Herman, there was a post on here a couple of months ago describing the use of the plastic "clamshell" containers for protecting fruit.  If you only have a few precious ones to protect maybe that would make sense and deter the mice.

Steve

Vasile, If you want to grow a very good Pear here in NJ, grow a Seckel Pear. It is smaller and firm with very good flavor. Plus it is not grainy like many others, and very easy to grow. By the third year you will be able to taste fruit and by the fifth year you will have many pears. What Cherry tree are you growing. Many you see in the catalogs look pretty, but split and spoil easily. I grew two types at my last house, that grew well here. I will have to look up their names because the memory is not very good. You can grow these fruit here, it's the same as figs, you have to grow right variety. Quince, I do not know of this fruit. So your on your own on that.

luke

Yes Seckel ,should be the only one,I had one in a 5 in one pear tree that died.
No more cherry for me that is for sure.
Today I finally had excellent main crop figs from many cultivars that did bad this Summer,because it is the fifth day without rain so ,many excellent fruits are ready to pick,as for example:
Marseilles Black vs,Gino,Hardy Chicago,Stella,Malta Black,Violette de Bordeaux,Vista,Aubique Petite ,Atreano,they all have excellent ripe fruits hanging on them today.
What a difference a little period of dry weather makes!.
My Garden is a bit of Haven again!.
I hope dry weather last,because the soil still have a lot of water inside,and rain is not needed at this point.

Seckel pears are my favorite and taste like honey when fully ripe.Squirrels,hornets,woodpeckers,sapsuckers,and other birds love them too.

Barry, have you tried Magness pears? They are as disease resistant as Seckle, and taste like a larger version of Seckle.

Barry after posting this earlier, I decided to go out to the orchard and bring in some Seckle, Magness, and Warren to compare. Brought in some that had ripened on the tree. I would say both Warren and Magness are as good as Seckle, if not better. There is a slight difference in flavor profile. But, all three are very close to being perfect, if you like high quality sweet pears. Plus, there was no scab on any of them, without one once of spray. I would rate them as a must for any one who likes sugar pears. But does not like spraying.

Bob Zone 5 Connecticut

Wish List: Any figs that has been growing unprotected, in a northern zone 5, for the last 50 to 100 years.

      No, I haven't tried Magness pears. I have a couple of Bartlett pear trees that I planted 17 years ago.

As of, 09-16-2012, In ground main crop figs starting to swell & turn color, here in our zone 5 location.

In this order, Marseilles Black VS, Danny's Delight, Hardy Hartford, Hardy Chicago.

These are all classified as cold hardy type figs.

Marseilles Black VS - Heavy crops    Danny's Delight Heavy crops on small bush    Hardy Hartford starts producing good tasting fruit it's second year
 in ground    Hardy Chicago Good taste.

Since these four seem to ripen at about the same time we will eventually get rid of some and keep the most cold hardy, and the best tasting.

Bob Zone 5 Connecticut

Wish List: Any figs growing without winter protection in a northern zone 5 location, the last 50 to 100 years.

Herman did you try White Gold or Black Gold cherries? Those are among the most reliable for east coast conditions, not necessarily the highest quality cherries, but good. 

Magness is only good if it's on quince rootstock and nicely surrounded by other pollinating varieties. Otherwise good luck with fruit set. It's true it's a bigger version of Seckel in a way. It's a SeckelxComice cross. I just had one last week. Very nice. Maybe we should continue discussion at the GardenWeb Fruits and Orchards forum so other fruits stop hijacking Herman's excellent fig thread!

A good cherry that stays small and tastes good, not very sweet though is Carmine Jewel. It is a newer hybrid cross between a sweet and a tart. It only gets about 7 ft tall and is self fruitful. Gurneys and a couple others have it. I have 2 trees, one in ground and one in a pot and both produced for the first time this year.  

After 6 days of dry  climate ,finally some properly ripe fruits that taste like they should,,heavenly good,here is the pix.
Atreano + Stella

I finally got a ripe Sicilian red and it was great. I was waiting to try this one all summer.