My goal every summer is to get at least twelve months of mulberry products into the pantry — jams, syrups, dried fruit, wine, and vinegar — from a single tree. It sounds ambitious until you realize how much one mature mulberry produces and how many different preservation methods each batch of fruit can support. The problem is that a mulberry tree generous enough to supply a full year’s worth of preserves is also generous enough to feed every squirrel within a quarter-mile radius, and those squirrels have a scheduling advantage: they don’t have jobs, children, or anything else pulling them away from the tree at peak ripeness. I’ve spent several seasons now figuring out how to actually capture the harvest — not by declaring war on the local wildlife, but by working out a system that accounts for the competition, minimizes waste, and still gets enough fruit into fermentation vessels and canning jars to make the whole operation worth it. What follows is everything I’ve learned about mulberries, squirrels, and the surprisingly peaceful coexistence that makes a zero-waste harvest possible.
The Great Squirrel Standoff (And Why I Was Losing)
Here’s some context: I’d been growing my Illinois Everbearing mulberry for four years. Four years of watering, mulching, protecting it from late frosts, and talking to it (don’t judge me). That tree finally hit its stride last summer and promised me the kind of harvest that mulberry dreams are made of — deep, purple-black clusters so heavy the branches drooped. I was planning jam. I was planning cobbler. I had spreadsheets.
What I got instead was a front-row seat to what I can only describe as a squirrel buffet. They weren’t just eating the ripe berries. They were snipping off entire clusters, taking one bite, dropping the rest on my patio, and going back for more. The waste alone was enough to make a grown adult seriously reconsider their relationship with nature. Hence: the bathrobe, the Super Soaker, the neighbor incident.
The water gun strategy, for the record, did not work. The squirrel dodged my first shot, looked at me with what I’m fairly certain was contempt, and went back to eating. That was my rock bottom. That was when I decided to actually figure out what works.
Understanding the Squirrels Eating Mulberries Problem
Before we talk solutions, it helps to understand why mulberry trees are basically squirrel paradise. Mulberries ripen fast — sometimes the entire crop on a branch comes in over just a few weeks — and the berries are soft, sweet, and easy to eat. Squirrels are opportunistic foragers with excellent memory and zero shame. Once they find your tree, they’ll return daily and tell all their friends. It’s less of a raid and more of a reservation they made without asking you.
The good news is you don’t have to choose between having a mulberry tree and having a squirrel problem. With the right combination of deterrents, you can protect enough of your harvest to actually enjoy it — while accepting that some amount of wildlife sharing is simply part of growing fruit in a backyard setting. Spoiler: that acceptance was the part that took me the longest to reach.
Harvest Timing Is Your First Line of Defense
The single most effective thing I changed was how often I harvested. Mulberries don’t wait, and neither do squirrels. Instead of checking my tree every few days, I started picking every single morning during peak season. I’d lay a clean sheet or tarp beneath the canopy, give the branches a gentle shake, and collect whatever was ripe enough to fall. Squirrels tend to target the easiest, ripest fruit first — so if you get there before them, you win that round. It sounds simple because it is. It also means you have to actually show up, which is its own kind of gardening lesson.
Physical Deterrents Worth Trying
Netting is often recommended, but I’ll be honest — draping bird netting over a mature mulberry tree is a project that requires either a very tall ladder, a very patient friend, or both. It’s more practical on younger, smaller trees. If your tree is manageable in size, netting during the final ripening weeks can make a genuine difference. Just make sure to use netting with small enough holes that birds and squirrels can’t get tangled.
The Repellent That Actually Stops Squirrels Before They Reach Your Ripening Fruit
Squirrels don’t just nibble at mulberries—they stage coordinated raids during peak ripeness, often stripping an entire branch in days. After years of netting failures and live traps that caught everything but the smartest offenders, I needed something to deter them at ground level before they even climbed.
What works
- The scent genuinely repels squirrels without harming them—I noticed they’d approach the base of my tree, catch the smell, and veer toward the neighbor’s oak instead within a week of consistent applications.
- It’s safe to spray around ripening fruit and doesn’t leave a chemical residue that affects taste, so you can apply it right up until harvest.
- One 32oz bottle covers multiple trees and lasts through most of a growing season if you reapply after rain—much cheaper than replacing damaged netting every year.
What doesn’t
- Rain washes it off faster than advertised, especially during heavy summer storms—you’ll need to reapply every 2-3 weeks instead of monthly if you live somewhere wet.
- It’s not a complete solution for determined squirrels; persistent individuals will eventually test the perimeter again, so combine it with other barriers like tree guards or careful pruning of low-hanging branches.
I doubted this would work the first time I sprayed it—squirrels seemed to ignore most repellents I’d tried before—but I was surprised to see real behavior change within days of the first application. Find it on Amazon here.
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