MA VT Flatlander
5 year old buck +
6 years of growing trashed by bears. Trees had some apples last year, this year they had around 50-60 apples. Bears ate them all. This is Vermont.
Apple tree bear damage
- Thread starter MA VT Flatlander
- Start date
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
OUCH! And that is why I could never live where bears are present.
MRBB
5 year old buck +
that sucks, but sadly, its just a bear trying to live, food is food to them, they could care less if you don;'t want them to eat it?
live where bears are, and you have to expect some damage at times
here in PA< on my one farm, if I fenced tree's like that, the deer would push them right over too, and do damage like that too!
lost so many tree's on the one farm I gave up, never got to the size, a bear would damage, darn deer wouldn't let them get there ??
better fencing is about all I could suggest, that or adding some power to the fence, bears really DON"T like getting zapped
might help you, they sell decent solar powered units too if remote ?
you might also do well with a few cheap harbor freight wire less alarms, what's nice about them is they all trip the same , so if you have one set up any where it will trigger all the alarms you have
so you can place a base in a few rooms or ? and get to hear it go off, there like 10 bucks or less on sale
Other wise, its just part if living in bear area's
you have to think the bears were there before you and there only trying to live, food is food to them, easier is always better too/
I will never blame a bear for doing damage, its only being what it is
I have LOTS of them here, and to be honest DEER are way more problem for me, at the one farm I couldn't get a apple tree to grow, deer would eat them to the ground or every limb on them, spent a small fortune truing, and they will shove a fence down like your's too
go taller or wider around the tree, and they will jump over a 8 ft fence and get in side ?? I gave up on fruit tree's there,
bears there never got a chance to do damage LOL
AT my hunting place, I have a TON of bears, almost daily at this time of yr, most at once has been 9
and in 30+ yrs of having the place, never a lick of damage , minus a small branch or so getting busted
but I think its in part to a LOT of food, they tend to stay out of the tree's and eat what's on the ground, as the tree's there normally produce a ton of apples, and by the time there all gone, many bears have denned up for winter!
But there on the deck there all the time, to date ONLY one female bear has figured out my bird feeder pulley system, and she has never even damaged it to open it, I think she is a VERY smart bear, or smarter than the rest! HAHA
but living in bear area's, you have to take the good with the bad, sorry?
live where bears are, and you have to expect some damage at times
here in PA< on my one farm, if I fenced tree's like that, the deer would push them right over too, and do damage like that too!
lost so many tree's on the one farm I gave up, never got to the size, a bear would damage, darn deer wouldn't let them get there ??
better fencing is about all I could suggest, that or adding some power to the fence, bears really DON"T like getting zapped
might help you, they sell decent solar powered units too if remote ?
you might also do well with a few cheap harbor freight wire less alarms, what's nice about them is they all trip the same , so if you have one set up any where it will trigger all the alarms you have
so you can place a base in a few rooms or ? and get to hear it go off, there like 10 bucks or less on sale
Other wise, its just part if living in bear area's
you have to think the bears were there before you and there only trying to live, food is food to them, easier is always better too/
I will never blame a bear for doing damage, its only being what it is
I have LOTS of them here, and to be honest DEER are way more problem for me, at the one farm I couldn't get a apple tree to grow, deer would eat them to the ground or every limb on them, spent a small fortune truing, and they will shove a fence down like your's too
go taller or wider around the tree, and they will jump over a 8 ft fence and get in side ?? I gave up on fruit tree's there,
bears there never got a chance to do damage LOL
AT my hunting place, I have a TON of bears, almost daily at this time of yr, most at once has been 9
and in 30+ yrs of having the place, never a lick of damage , minus a small branch or so getting busted
but I think its in part to a LOT of food, they tend to stay out of the tree's and eat what's on the ground, as the tree's there normally produce a ton of apples, and by the time there all gone, many bears have denned up for winter!
But there on the deck there all the time, to date ONLY one female bear has figured out my bird feeder pulley system, and she has never even damaged it to open it, I think she is a VERY smart bear, or smarter than the rest! HAHA
but living in bear area's, you have to take the good with the bad, sorry?
MA VT Flatlander
5 year old buck +
There are not many deer in this area of Vermont. I would be very happy to trade more deer for less bears.
MRBB
5 year old buck +
HAHA, for many many yrs I used to think the same
I never thought having too many deer was a possible thing to worry about
But I can tell you this, having TOO many deer is worse than having too few
deer numbers super high are hard on every thing, cannot plant things, cannot get in or out of a stand, deer sizes get smaller and smaller, doe to buck ratio's go out the window
poachers and cheaters ONLY kill bucks, making maters even worse
very frustrating, and unless you open your place to the public, NO help from the state on controlling numbers
I have had yrs where I brought in people and killed over 40+ deer ina season and didn't put a dent in things
so trust me, too many deer SUCK, maybe worse than dealing with bears, as deer will eat more things I thing , seen them eat plastic flowers here LOL
I never thought having too many deer was a possible thing to worry about
But I can tell you this, having TOO many deer is worse than having too few
deer numbers super high are hard on every thing, cannot plant things, cannot get in or out of a stand, deer sizes get smaller and smaller, doe to buck ratio's go out the window
poachers and cheaters ONLY kill bucks, making maters even worse
very frustrating, and unless you open your place to the public, NO help from the state on controlling numbers
I have had yrs where I brought in people and killed over 40+ deer ina season and didn't put a dent in things
so trust me, too many deer SUCK, maybe worse than dealing with bears, as deer will eat more things I thing , seen them eat plastic flowers here LOL
I feel your pain, last year about one third of my trees in my main orchard were ravaged by bears in addition to all of the trees located in three remote orchards in small clearings. All of the trees were fenced with additional wraps of barbed wire around the fences and main tree trunks. After several consecutive years of bear damage, I finally gave up on trying to maintain the remote orchards. Thankfully no bear damage in my main orchard this year yet.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Try concrete re-mesh for fencing, and stake it with re-bar every 18" or so. Make the re-bar long enough so it comes up to the top of the 5 ft. tall fencing after it's pounded into the ground. Lay some 1/2" or 3/4" ply wood around the cages that have 1 1/4" drywall screws run thru them. That'll put some fear in them !!
You may want to consider pulling all the apples off the trees each year until they get lots more wood on them, in case you get a REALLY persistent bear that somehow makes it over the drywall screws and can balance on top of a concrete mesh cage to reach the apples. Staking heavily will keep the cages from collapsing if one tries to climb the cage. It's usually smaller bears that do the climbing. I've never seen a big bear climb a small tree. they WILL climb a big, old, full-sized tree - but by then the branches are woody enough to take their weight without too much damage. We have a TON of bears around our camp area. From my experience, the bigger bears won't try to go out to the ends of small limbs like smaller, inexperienced bears will. I've seen smaller bears ( up to about 100 lbs. ) try to crawl out too far and fall 15 to 30 ft. out of an apple tree. They crash with a big thud and run like " H " , bawling all the way !! They are very scary about climbing apple trees then.
We have some crab apple trees that put out small - 1/2" - crab apples. I've watched big bears just sit on the ground and reach up and pull the ends of the limbs down. They just stripped the small fruit off the limb ends as far as they could reach, then let them go to spring back up with no damage. I've watched this activity several times over the years, which leads me to believe that older bears know what they should NOT attempt to climb. They just pick up the drops and reach up to get the easy fruit. Those same crab apple trees are just fine to this day. Falling out of a tree teaches them a lesson, IMO.
You may want to consider pulling all the apples off the trees each year until they get lots more wood on them, in case you get a REALLY persistent bear that somehow makes it over the drywall screws and can balance on top of a concrete mesh cage to reach the apples. Staking heavily will keep the cages from collapsing if one tries to climb the cage. It's usually smaller bears that do the climbing. I've never seen a big bear climb a small tree. they WILL climb a big, old, full-sized tree - but by then the branches are woody enough to take their weight without too much damage. We have a TON of bears around our camp area. From my experience, the bigger bears won't try to go out to the ends of small limbs like smaller, inexperienced bears will. I've seen smaller bears ( up to about 100 lbs. ) try to crawl out too far and fall 15 to 30 ft. out of an apple tree. They crash with a big thud and run like " H " , bawling all the way !! They are very scary about climbing apple trees then.
We have some crab apple trees that put out small - 1/2" - crab apples. I've watched big bears just sit on the ground and reach up and pull the ends of the limbs down. They just stripped the small fruit off the limb ends as far as they could reach, then let them go to spring back up with no damage. I've watched this activity several times over the years, which leads me to believe that older bears know what they should NOT attempt to climb. They just pick up the drops and reach up to get the easy fruit. Those same crab apple trees are just fine to this day. Falling out of a tree teaches them a lesson, IMO.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Can't do E-fence at our place. Too many trees that are scattered around the property. We'd have a fortune in e-fences. Sounds like they'd work though, for only a few trees or a concentrated planting / orchard. Good luck with the e-fence.
NY_Terrence
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the pictures and discussion on how to TRY to control the bear damage. I had two trees damaged in August here in the Finger Lakes region of New York. 
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Pretty light damage for bears. Coons maybe ?? ^^^^^
NY_Terrence
5 year old buck +
We do have bears in the area, but you are right..., might be coons.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
That soooo sucks to loose all your hard work.
Luckily I don't have bears in my area and hope I never do. I was wondering if the concrete re mesh with heavier T posts every couple feet would help against them at all? Most of the times I see pics posted of bear damage it's with thinner welded wire and garden posts.
Luckily I don't have bears in my area and hope I never do. I was wondering if the concrete re mesh with heavier T posts every couple feet would help against them at all? Most of the times I see pics posted of bear damage it's with thinner welded wire and garden posts.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
NH - If we did e-fences around our outer perimeter apple trees, we'd need about 3 dozen e-fences !! We have a " main " orchard near the cabin with about 40 trees in it ( 3 pears in that count ) - and another 30 or so trees in nooks and crannies around our fields and food plots. Your " keep the bears happy " comment ^^^^^ is one reason we planted so many apple & crab trees in the first place. We figured we'd lose a few to bears, so we over-planted what we'd need normally.
H20fwler - Concrete re-mesh is what we've been using for cages and your idea of t-posts spaced somewhat close is a good one. We use re-bar for staking, but the idea is the same. It isn't 100% bulletproof, but in our experience, it sure helps. If there are apples dropping, the bears don't seem to want to fight with the fence when they can just stroll from tree to tree and get the easy pickings. It helps to have other food sources to keep the bears away from the apple trees. Acorns will keep the bears in the woods ( at least here ! ) and lay off the apple trees. Corn is candy to a bear in the fall. We have both of those at our camp, so hopefully we get minimal damage in the years ahead.
H20fwler - Concrete re-mesh is what we've been using for cages and your idea of t-posts spaced somewhat close is a good one. We use re-bar for staking, but the idea is the same. It isn't 100% bulletproof, but in our experience, it sure helps. If there are apples dropping, the bears don't seem to want to fight with the fence when they can just stroll from tree to tree and get the easy pickings. It helps to have other food sources to keep the bears away from the apple trees. Acorns will keep the bears in the woods ( at least here ! ) and lay off the apple trees. Corn is candy to a bear in the fall. We have both of those at our camp, so hopefully we get minimal damage in the years ahead.
H2Ofwler, I would't put too much hope in a concrete wire fence and T posts holding back any bears. If they want the apples, they will just use the fence like a ladder to climb into the tree. That is what they have done to our trees even though we have even over wrapped the fence with barbed wire. An E fence maybe your only hope.
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