Defending our Fig Trees from Rodents

This is BD's (our son's) fig tree. It doubles as a train, spaceship (such as the Roton), and factory.

Living in a Redwood Forest and practicing what we call "permacultural forest infill farming" has some strong benefits (leaving the Redwoods and Douglas Fir trees increases our effective rainfall by about 50% since they actively convert fog to fog drip), yet has a few downsides (all the critters are still here...).

Our son recently discovered rodents harvesting twigs, leaves, and the all-important figs from our fig tree - his fig tree and favorite climbing tree - which was a declaration of war as far as he was concerned.

This is a transcript of his dictated Call-To-Arms Blog Entry (very lightly edited)

"OK, stop talking. Hey everyone um I just wanted to tell you we're having problems with our fig tree, because rodents are climbing up our fig tree and stealing our branches and figs. I was just wondering could you help us do this because we need help we need all of my friends help to a make the fig tree be better so um would you like to come to our house today to help us fix our fig tree. When you're done you can so and we can like have a little party at our for tree so please help us fix our fig tree. Thank you."

The culprits seem to be chipmunks, since they are also attacking other plants and we've caught them in the act... Look just above center right in the photo below.

Tanglefoot seems to prevent more damage, so we have cut back branches that touch the ground and applied to about 24" of the lower trunk. Other species could be involved, such as Grey Tree Squirrels and Dusky Footed Woodrats. We've caught all three eating plants in the seedling troughs.