Asked on Aug 03, 2015

What eats the entire inside of a orange and leaves no grooves?

Petra
by Petra
We have a orange tree and every day there are oranges on the ground. There is a perfect circle an no teeth marks at all. The entire inside is completely gone. Need a little help in figuring out what is eating all our fruit.
  16 answers
  • Roe Holcombe Roe Holcombe on Aug 03, 2015
    We have orange, satsuma and lemon trees and our fruit is often eaten clean by rats! Either fallen fruit or fruit on the tree - they don't mind which!!
  • Teresa Teresa on Aug 03, 2015
    That is just spooky! We have all kinds of critters eating fruit and stuff I put out,but there is always a mark of how they get into the food/fruit. Unless of course they can devour the entire piece.
  • Gretchen Gretchen on Aug 03, 2015
    The desert rats we had in southern California would eat the peel of the lemons only, leaving just the fruit hanging there. Different animals, different fruit, I'm betting rats.
  • Barbara Barbara on Aug 03, 2015
    Fruit rats, they are not big and can clean an orange out in no time, neatly too!
  • Sherrie Slaboda Sherrie Slaboda on Aug 03, 2015
    I thought I had bats eating the inside of my tangerines and then I saw the woodpecker enjoying the fruit.
  • Rita Wozniak Rita Wozniak on Aug 03, 2015
    YELLOW JACKETS, BEES OR WASPS.
  • Vel1629730 Vel1629730 on Aug 03, 2015
    HI ...I used to think kids or vagrants were sneaking into my backyard eating the citrus and leaving nothing but the peels...that is until one night I saw a possum sitting there chomping away...their little hands can actually peel the fruit before they eat it. BTW, possums are vegetarian and do not get rabies, so maybe you should pick the oranges you don't want, and leave them for the little guy to eat...After all, it's nice to share! :-) Also, could be a racoon...I know they eat tomatoes.
  • M'sMammy M'sMammy on Aug 03, 2015
    If it were my house I'd say squirrels. Looked way up in a tree at something red. Was a half eaten tomato! Last year they got more than I did.
  • Debbie Miller Debbie Miller on Aug 03, 2015
    Sounds like a Racoon...their little hands do neat work...
  • Bonnie F Bonnie F on Aug 04, 2015
    When I lived in FL we had grapefruit and orange trees. We had the same problem and it was fruit rats. We had to get the local agricultural agent to come out and set traps for them so we could actually get some of our fruit for ourselves!
  • Blu99 Blu99 on Aug 04, 2015
    Orioles
  • Susan N Susan N on Aug 05, 2015
    Probably raccoons or possums. Could also be rats as someone offered. I have a very old and very prolific lemon tree. What I was finding was the lemons, minus the rinds, were hanging still perfectly attached to the tree. What eats the skin off a lemon and leaves the flesh still attached to the branches?? Rats... With all the fruit trees in our neighborhood, our scavengers are healthy as all get out!
  • Petra Petra on Aug 05, 2015
    You all rock!!! Thank you so much. I think I will call out vector control and see if they can help. Whatever it is does not like my neighbors apple trees, various berries and lemon trees. But they sure love our oranges which are usually sweet as heck.....Thank you so much and I will give a update as soon as vector control comes out
  • Bon18389371 Bon18389371 on Mar 11, 2017

    Raccoon got all our peaches, left nothing behind

  • Billy Bradley Billy Bradley on May 10, 2019

    Wish I could find out, I have the same problem. Please keep me informed of what u find out.

  • Kelly Kelly on Mar 25, 2021

    Something is eating my tangerines and leaving skin and fruit all over. I’ve tried humane rat traps but the bait goes untouched. I’ve tried regular snap traps and whether the trap goes off or not, some critter is getting the bait and escaping the trap. Other than cutting down the tree, what can I do to get rid of the critter