Something is eating my fruit trees

sandyullom

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I have 5 fruit trees in my yard that I planted last spring. They are only about 2-3 feet tall and are in a fenced area. I just went out to check on them and have noticed the bark at the bottoms of three of them is getting eaten. I'm assuming rabbits or something of that nature?? I put some chicken wire around them, but was wondering if anyone has any other/better ideas of what to do to keep them from getting killed. Thanks for your help.
 

patandchickens

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Could be rabbits, could be mice or voles or other rodents (you can get some sense of which it is by looking at the size of the tooth marks and the height of the damage).

I have had fairly good luck using Skoot, a repellent that you buy at the garden center (or etc)... it is a sort of paste that can be applied directly to tree trunks and the lower parts of shrub branches, or can be diluted with water and sprayed on with a sprayer if you prefer. It has solved a rabbit problem for me in the past and *seems* to help somewhat against rodents.

The other customary possibility would be 1/4" mesh hardwarecloth wrapped fairly closely around the affected areas of the tree trunks. This is feasible if there are just a couple trees but ridiculous if there are like dozens of them; also you have to be very careful not to damage the tree in the process and to remove the hardwarecloth guard before it starts to constrict the growing trunk. 'Swhy I use Skoot instead :p

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 
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