Came home to find my pear tree stripped bare overnight

[fridgefullofplums]

Returned home to find my pear tree (back garden) stripped clean. No sign of any on the ground or anywhere nearby. I am gutted!!!! It was my best ever crop and those pears were a thing of beauty. Any ideas if any bird or animal could have done this is such an efficient and successful way?

Wow, is there easy access to your garden?

We witnessed a squirrel knock a pear off our tree, run down, pick it up and carry it off. So yes, very likely wildlife took them. Our tree is old and hardly produces any fruit so it’s annoying when the squirrels/pigeons seem to get more than we do.

While obviously it could be wildlife it would be odd if they had been so meticulous. I'd guess it's the two legged form. Get a camera.

I wouldn't rest until I'd solved this. This would probably be my villain origin story.

Any delicious baking smells from the neighbours?

Human wildlife is my guess.

My tree regularly gets stripped by foxes. Usually just before they are ripe enough to eat. They leave half chewed pears on the lawn and then poo everywhere

Deer, including muntjac would be my guess based on my experience but that may not be a possibility based on your garden and location.

Definitely no way deer are getting into the garden.

They were all there yesterday!

Do you have a neighbourhood WhatsApp group?

Honestly the same happened to me a few years ago. Not a pear in sight. No access to garden without scaling the fence from neighbours. I still don't know what happened to all my pears!

I'm guessing the human kind .
If it was animals then I sure you would have evidence . The odd nibbles one in the floor or a core or two .
as other have asked , how long were you away from home ?

Has to be people. No way any kind of wildlife stripped an entire tree in 1 night. Unless there was some kind of coordinated attack by the local squirrel population!

I had this with my gooseberries this year. Gutted, as I love gooseberry curd. I put that down to birds.

I thought OP could have a little fun with it

although I’m only on this thread because I love the idea of a gang of squirrels planning the perfect heist while OP was away

We have a damson, a green gauge and a cherry in the orchard. I did manage to pick one lot of damsons and one pile of plums but literally overnight all the fruit was done. I only salvaged enough for 3 pots of damson and plum jam - out of trees so heavy with fruit that the boughs were nearly on the ground. In our case it was birds . In my case it was starlings, black birds and wood pigeons.. heaving one day stripped the next . Not a single cherry did I taste 🥲

It was probably squirrels. They're really hungry this year after the heatwaves/drought and the trees are struggling.
My nut tree and plum tree were stripped overnight too. I think they must send out a signal to the squirrels when they're just ripe and they all swoop down!

Does your neighbour have a plum tree perchance?