One of the best tools for the gardener and fruit grower is an automated Crittercam that is motion triggered and will take photographs during the day and night.
This tool allows you to know what is devouring your produce and, accordingly, how to combat it.
This year, the squirrels have been particularly tough in my garden. They started on my plums which I did not really mind because I had so many of them. However, they also devastated my peach crop.
Now that my plums, peaches, and tomatoes are finished, it appears that they are going after everything else in our garden. I have been finding butternut squash, tomatoes, and figs laying around our garden. I wasn't sure what was getting them, e.g. possums, birds, squirrels, mice, etc., so I put out my crittercam and learned that a couple of squirrels are the culprits along with a few Carolina wrens that have taken up residence in the vegetable garden.
2 squirrels inspecting a butternut squash
squirrel hanging upside down eating fig
Carolina wren in foreground