Rabits stripping off bark

Sage Hermit · Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:48 pm

Well the title basically says it all.

[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba008-1.jpg[/img]
In the spring this tree I think crab apple is very pretty with red flowers.

[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba009.jpg[/img]
some kind of dwarf. not too concerned with this one.

What should I do? This tree is pretty young only about 7 feet tall so I am a bit concerned. Any advice?

applestar · Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:50 pm

If a tree is girdled (the bark stripped off completely around the trunk) it will die, since the inner bark/cambium layer is the living part of the tree that contains the veins of the tree (phloem) that transports the sap from the leaves to the roots. (Well, that's a bit simplified and not exactly precise but you get the idea.)

I'm afraid it doesn't look good for your trees.

Rabbits as well as deer, mice, and other foraging animals will chew on the bark during winter. It's best to protect them by wrapping the trunk to the base with hardware cloth or specific products sold for the purpose.

I discovered yesterday that I neglected to protect one of my blueberry bushes and it's been pretty severely "pruned" (in this case they like eating the tender/twiggy branch tips)

. I was going to scrounge together a hardware cloth or a wire fence cage for it today, but the little blueberry bush is now under 18" of snow!

Sage Hermit · Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:42 pm

well thats the second tree in 2 years. damn it. Well if they are good enough for my cat they are good enough for me too. I am going to eat them and restore order to my ecosystem.

Pineville · Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:46 pm

ummmm, rabbit, tastes good!

nebraskannie · Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:50 pm

Here on the farm in Nebraska, we get rabbits that eat EVERYTHING, even roses. Until any woody plant is from 3 to 5 years old we put wire cages around the plant from about Sept. until there is plenty of green stuff for them to eat in the spring. Anything lighter than chicken wire is useless, even the plastic tubes sold for this. Also we have to be sure the cage is high enough that drifted snow doesn't make the plant available, which means sweeping around the cages occasionally. After re-planting our orchard trees about five times, we finally figured it out. It's worth the extra effort.

nebraskannie · Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:52 pm

Sage Hermit, hope this doesn't offend anyone, but we shoot them and feed them to the cats whenever we can. We're so overrun with them because we have few natural predators anymore.

applestar · Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:57 pm

Old thread, but worth reviewing, especially right now as we enter into deep winter.

You're right about drifting snow -- last year, we had unusually heavy snowfall for NJ and all my fruit trees were standing naked above the snowline -- all the protective sleeves and fences were buried under the snow.

I was REALLY worried, but I think the snow took the bunnies by surprise too and they didn't make an appearance until the snow had melted below the danger zone.

This year, I've surrounded all the blueberries with a fence.

Hmm... I'd better check and make sure I haven't forgotten anybody else.

Alicemae · Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:16 pm

This was an accident but wow did it ever work! I used to have rabbits snacking on just about everything in my veggie garden. A friend gave me a large goose decoy when he was cleaning out a garage, so I put it on a 5' pole in the middle of my garden (which is 30' x 150') and honestly ~ I haven't even seen many rabbits around much less evidence of them in my garden!! I'm quite dazzled by that!