bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Have fourteen crabapple trees I've had protected by tree tubes since planting four or five years back.
Fully appreciate that good many folks on the board appreciate cages vs tubes for fruit trees -- wouldn't argue with anyone about it as wish I'd caged from start but just have struggled finding time amid other competing tasks to switch over, and in our neck of the woods haven't had issue with voles, mice, rabbits, etc, doing any damage. Honestly, to date the main dislike I've had for tubes is hiding root suckers, and the suckers having slowed growth just a bit. Still, this year most all the trees had fruit... which brings me to a new issue.
Some critter has taken to aggressively knocking the tubes apart / down, and recently damaged a few of the trunks. Due to the fall timing I would guess it bucks rubbing... BUT... they haven't done it in years past, and the rubs look less "shredded" than most rubs I see. Some deep scratches in the trunks caused by either tine, hoof, or claw (we do have bears). Tubes are really bad about housing wasps, so could be something going after them. Reason for mentioning "hoof" as an option is that several weeks ago I had a friend visiting and he actually witnessed a buck "having a kicking fit" on one of the tubes which sure enough I found on the ground, though in that case no damage was done to the tree in question.
Anybody have a strong opinion on it being bucks vs bear (or some other critter)? Again, just looks to be different than typical shredded rubs I find and lower on the trunk as well.
Fully appreciate that good many folks on the board appreciate cages vs tubes for fruit trees -- wouldn't argue with anyone about it as wish I'd caged from start but just have struggled finding time amid other competing tasks to switch over, and in our neck of the woods haven't had issue with voles, mice, rabbits, etc, doing any damage. Honestly, to date the main dislike I've had for tubes is hiding root suckers, and the suckers having slowed growth just a bit. Still, this year most all the trees had fruit... which brings me to a new issue.
Some critter has taken to aggressively knocking the tubes apart / down, and recently damaged a few of the trunks. Due to the fall timing I would guess it bucks rubbing... BUT... they haven't done it in years past, and the rubs look less "shredded" than most rubs I see. Some deep scratches in the trunks caused by either tine, hoof, or claw (we do have bears). Tubes are really bad about housing wasps, so could be something going after them. Reason for mentioning "hoof" as an option is that several weeks ago I had a friend visiting and he actually witnessed a buck "having a kicking fit" on one of the tubes which sure enough I found on the ground, though in that case no damage was done to the tree in question.
Anybody have a strong opinion on it being bucks vs bear (or some other critter)? Again, just looks to be different than typical shredded rubs I find and lower on the trunk as well.