Question: When are your apricots ripe?
Answer: The day the squirrels discover them.
Squirrels and Humans find many of the same fruits delicious. Squirrels will eat most stone fruits (apricots, cherries, plums, etc). Also apples, pears, tomatoes.
You look out of your kitchen window and see the squirrel eating your apricot on the back wall. Or you will see a half-eaten fruit.
On the plus side, in good years, your apricot tree will produce much more fruit than your wildlife can eat. In a good year, we may have over 600 apricots.
Squirrels tend to have a short life-time due to cars, hawks, and cats.
You can try to prevent access to your trees using bird-netting. The disadvantes are that it works best for small trees and it is expensive.
