I’m considering planting a kiwi vine (fuzzy variety) in my yard but there are quite a few raccoons and rats in our neighborhood. Has anyone had an issue with kiwi attracting these pests? Thanks.
Squirrels biting them off from the vines is probably the biggest concern (that's what it is at the garden), but hopefully others will comment with their own backyard experience.
So far, raccoons have not been a problem; but I have had Black Rats eating the fruit occasionally. I suspect that raccoons will never bother them here because they only go for sweet fruit, and the green fuzzy kiwis normally don't ripen fully on the vines. One year only, I lost most of the crop to some critter (squirrel suspected) that cut off blossoms and ate the nectar or pollen bearing parts. I've also had squirrels taking a bite out of some of the kiwi fruits, as Daniel mentioned, but the number of fruits affected was not large. They seemed to just taste a few of the fruits and then decided that they weren't worth eating.
I'm not sure how accurate this information is but I was speaking with a gentleman yesterday who used to have some very large kiwi vines in the Vancouver area. He found when he went to harvest the fruit that they were attracting cats. He said he would find several of them under the vines and they were treating the kiwis like catnip - large eyed and rubbing, purring and rolling around in the fallen fruit. I've never had this issue nor any issues with raccoons but in the past I have had to deal with the odd rat. This year I had no issues with any critters and got a respectable harvest of golden kiwi.
Yes, it's true that cats are attracted to kiwi vines; we've observed this over many years of owning several cats. It's never been a problem for us; but cats potentially could damage the new growth on young vines.
