Bear Damage

[RGrizzzz]

Has anyone had any luck coming up with a solution to keep bears out of trees? Sometime in late September or October a bear did some SERIOUS damage to a group of half a dozen chestnut trees. The trees are about 10 years old and producing, but don't have limbs strong enough to hold bears. Some had lateral branches broken off and others had the central leader(s) completely snapped off 8' high. I know the trees should recover, but it's disheartening seeing how badly they're damaged. Some had 5' weld wire cages still surrounding the trunks while others did. I'm thinking something like a smell spray could dissuade them from climbing the trees if it were sprayed on the trunk. With many of our fruit trees coming into production soon, I'd like to find a solution that can last for a few weeks. I'm content with them pulling/breaking branches they can reach from the ground. I just want to keep them off the trunks.

 

[rogersb]

I had a 9 foot pear tree snapped off at 3 feet, a 15 footer taken apart to basically 5 feet, and a 3rd tree almost 15 feet half uprooted. Anything anyone has would be appreciated.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I have an apple orchard in an area with extremely high bear numbers and it is challenging. Nothing I've tried works, so I just accept the damage and try to overwhelm the bears with large numbers of trees. Plant more trees than you need and don't bother pruning them because the bears will rip off large branches and you need those extra branches. It has been fairly successful and I'm finally able to the point where my trees are growing more new branches than the bear can tear down.

 

[Feelslikefar.]

Would a hot fence work or would they just run through it and destroy it?
I had a neighbor who used a 3-4 strand high fence around his bee hives for a while because of bears.
He eventually gave up the hives, but I don't know if they were the reason or not.

 

[RGrizzzz]

I have an apple orchard in an area with extremely high bear numbers and it is challenging. Nothing I've tried works, so I just accept the damage and try to overwhelm the bears with large numbers of trees. Plant more trees than you need and don't bother pruning them because the bears will rip off large branches and you need those extra branches. It has been fairly successful and I'm finally able to the point where my trees are growing more new branches than the bear can tear down.

Out of curiosity, what have you tried?

A hot fence won't work because the trees are fairly scattered. We do want critters to get the mast, but once it drops.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Out of curiosity, what have you tried?

A hot fence won't work because the trees are fairly scattered. We do want critters to get the mast, but once it drops.

Welded wire fence, concrete rebar fencing, barbed wire wrapped around fenceposts around trees.

The bears in my area rip the tops off 50 year old bur oak and black cherry trees when they are hungry for acorns and cherries, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. When you just have a couple fruit trees, they will visit frequently and damage them faster than they can grow back.

I have around 100 apple trees now and the bears still do a lot of damage, but they can't keep up with the annual tree growth. They will still occasionally rip off a main branch or two off several trees per year, but the trees will recover and there are plenty of other trees producing in the meantime.

 

[bigboreblr]

Though not perfect, annual pruning helps. Make the branches you got stronger........

I got a 375 H&H that can do bear damage....

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Though not perfect, annual pruning helps. Make the branches you got stronger........

I got a 375 H&H that can do bear damage....

A Penn State prof in the fruit tree dept. told me the same thing about pruning. I asked him about how to make long, "whippy" sagging branches stronger - he said to prune them. Scaffold limbs get thicker & woodier.

Like Ben.MN/WI said above, we over-planted the numbers of fruit trees to try to keep ahead of the bears. We've had a couple get damaged so far, but they grow new limbs. The main thing is to grow them big enough so any damage can be overcome by the tree themselves. That's the goal. We selected rootstocks that would grow big, woody, full-sized trees to achieve that goal. The trick is protecting them in the early years to get them well-established and big enough to grow new limbs if bears hit them. One thing that helps keep the bear pressure down at our place is miles of oak trees / acorns with high fat content. Bears will go for them over apples to fatten up for winter. Another reason to plant oaks for those gents who don't have many.

We've used 5ft. tall concrete re-mesh for cages, staked with re-bar. Not fool-proof, but it discourages younger bears (the most likely to climb) from attempting. We've noticed that older, big bears don't seem anxious to climb like the 80 to 150 lb. ones are. They don't waste energy climbing when eating the numerous drops on the ground is much easier. So is gorging on those acorns.

 

[Rubee]

Hey Bows. What diameter concrete mesh cages do you use that helps keep bears off your fruit trees? I’m concerned that deer wouldn’t be able to reach the ones fallen inside the cages.

 

[bigboreblr]

Hey Bows. What diameter concrete mesh cages do you use that helps keep bears off your fruit trees? I’m concerned that deer wouldn’t be able to reach the ones fallen inside the cages.

Wondering you wrap the cage in barbed wire, might not be that interested. Spraying sevin during June drop removes some fruit, not all though. There is probably a commercial thinning compound for young trees. At least keep the bears off when they're younger.

I used the bonide fruit tree combo spray that has sevin (carbyl) in it. Sprayed rose bushes with it. Bad idea. The the rose buds came off of it. Apple trees are in the rose family. They were spray roses.

Train a tree right, you can use a lateral to hoist up a car engine from it. Open center could be a good option. At least if one goes down, you got a few others for the tree to keep living on.

You do your homework, you will notice certain varieties will produce better crotch angles than others too. Crossbow and kerr are two good examples. I wonder if crabapples don't like large leaders, because they grow a lot of small fruit and may need a lot of fruiting buds a large branch can't produce like a bunch of smaller ones can.

I gave up on my pruning demonstration at home, but have 2 trees I am not pruning at camp to com[pare to 2 I am pruning. All 30-06 on anty.

Pruning can eliminate significant racoon branch damage. Prrobably keep the bear damage down too. Someone posted on here a pic of coyote up in an apple tree. Saw a coyote eating hickory nuts Sunday.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Hey Bows. What diameter concrete mesh cages do you use that helps keep bears off your fruit trees? I’m concerned that deer wouldn’t be able to reach the ones fallen inside the cages.

About 4' dia. cages. Most dropped apples rolled out of the cages - even in the early years of fruiting. Now - 95% of our apple & crab trees are big enough that limbs extend out well beyond the cages. With plenty of apples on the ground outside the cages these days, the 4' cages just act as a deterrent - not 100% prevention. I guess the bears figure why fight with a heavy, staked cage when there's plenty of chow right there on the ground? The fact that we have so many acorns in our mountains all around us keeps some pressure off the apple trees. Acorns are a bigger attraction than apples for fattening up.

I think we had more limbs broken off in the early fruiting years from deer standing on their hind legs and reaching up to pull limbs down. Bears would likely have done much more severe damage than a couple broken limbs. But we had no real cage damage = deer pulling limbs down to my thinking. We've had good luck with our cages - and we have lots of bears ....... FWIW.

 

[Dantana]

Pretty much every time I head up to camp in September and October I'm dealing with new limbs snapped on my fruit trees. Could be bears, could be raccoons (caught 2 in this orchard last weekend). Either way, it's super annoying. They especially target one particular orchard. Every single one of the 8 trees have been damaged the last two years. I may just pick all the fruit off next year to give those trees a break. I have another orchard that is 600+ yards away that they havent touched.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Chestnuts a couple of weeks ago, and now a pear tree. Last week was PA's muzzleloader bear season. Not a sign of them in a while. Between Monday and today, there have been at least 4 different bears on the property. GRRRRR.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Chestnuts a couple of weeks ago, and now a pear tree. Last week was PA's muzzleloader bear season. Not a sign of them in a while. Between Monday and today, there have been at least 4 different bears on the property. GRRRRR.
View attachment 84835

And just now. How bad is the damage going to be?

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That’s a big bear!

You need a bear tag-

 

[RGrizzzz]

That’s a big bear!

You need a bear tag-

PA early bear season was last week. I hunted Friday and Saturday with no sign. They showed backed up early Monday am.

 

[cavey]

It sucks - just when your trees have gotten past the stage of any real type of deer damage beyond rubbing, and the trees get strong enough to deal with the coons.... the bears show up . I have no advice beyond pruning and praying. Bears are a battle I cant compete with. The amount of damage can be devastating.

 

[Teeder]

PA early bear season was last week. I hunted Friday and Saturday with no sign. They should backed up early Monday am.

Yep. I had one on camera last Wednesday night go right by my stand.

 

[rogersb]

PA early bear season was last week. I hunted Friday and Saturday with no sign. They showed backed up early Monday am.

I was just texting my neighbor today about bear damage at his place. I don't know what unit you're in, but I cant believe they cut 3D down to one week of archery. We are filthy with bears here and should be open all archery season.

 

[RGrizzzz]

I was just texting my neighbor today about bear damage at his place. I don't know what unit you're in, but I cant believe they cut 3D down to one week of archery. We are filthy with bears here and should be open all archery season.

Our camp is on 3B, Lycoming County. Plenty of bears this year. We're on extended rifle season too during buck. Was bear archery ever longer than a week?