WELL...
While looking for stainless steel mesh / screen, it occurred to me to also look for something in either a 20 mesh with considerably larger diameter wire than the usual 0.27” to 0.30” diameter, or find 30 or 40 mesh with a little bigger wire than usual. Not only do we have a window screen and a screen door panel that go hit by flying debris in a couple of our storms this year (I patched the minor tears, but they don’t look so great), we get some of the tiny gnats or flies(?) that can get through std. 20 mesh screens. So, my idea was to find something with an aperture around 0.5 mm / 0.02” instead of the usual 1 mm / 0.40 aperture, but still stronger than the usual fiberglass or aluminum screen material. Stainless steel mesh (30 or 40) in wire at least 0.025 mm would seem to be the answer, but, this turns out to be hard to find in a width big enough to “cover” the “small dimension” of the old screen panels, about 22”. Drat!
Well we already had couple of hard frosts..first one was on the 30th...not a great garden year but it is what it is.
Hah! Got #3 yesterday. The 3rd squirrel, I mean. He was in the smaller trap I mounted on a branch on the south (more or less) side of the garden area where the (was) bigger Opo had been extending.
That’s not all of ‘em though, I saw another about 70 feet away, on that side. There’s been no more chewing up of the plants, but, that “was bigger” Opo plant is in really sad shape. Only 1 main stem has survived, and I’m unsure if that will make it. The plant seems to be barely holding its own despite no more damage to it since I put the traps out, and very good environmental conditions (except for the ever lowering sun angle and shade more of the day). But temps, humidity, and soil moisture have all been ideal the last 2-3 days. The other plant is “struggling” but making slight progress, and the fruit on it have grown a bit. :-)
Our tomatoes look like somey will crank out a few more fruits, but are just about “done”, especially those planted earliest. They used to last into the fall as long as I could keep ‘em from freezing — I think what I’m seeing is that they are taking up juglone until it gets to a concentration that starts killing the plant... Ergo, the plants I put in in July are still healthy enough to produce a few fruits. I guess I should have been chopping down those young walnut trees sooner, or, move the garden (at least the part with juglone sensitive plants.) No small task... :-(