Juvenile Delinquent

[greyphase]

I had what I suppose was a young bear go through my orchards within the last couple of nights and commit some random acts of vandalism :mad: ie. breaking off limbs.

I had just taken down my 5 foot concrete mesh fence from this Sherry apple tree to use on another smaller tree. The second pic shows the new damage and old bear damage from several years ago.

This damage on a Prudy apple tree may have been done two nights ago as the first pic shows the central leader of this tree wilted. if you look close in the 2nd pic you can see the wound and where the central leader use to be :mad:.

This limb on a Tolman Sweet apple tree wasn't broken off and may heal.

A Chestnut Crab with a broken limb.

The claw marks weren't large or deep. (sorry for the double posted pic).

The damage could have been a lot worst. It's just something you have to put up with in bear country.:(

 

[Lot2Learn]

Grrrrrrrr, that's disheartening.

Since we have bears, I know that pictures like that are in my future too.

I'm assuming that the concrete mesh cage would only deter the least serious delinquent, and that any bear worth his salt wouldn't let the cage stop them if they wanted some apples to eat?

 

[CrazyEd]

That sucks Rick. Never easy is it. One step forward, two back.

 

[deepsleep]

Sorry to hear about the bear damage (I fortunately don't have to deal with that), but tell us more about that Chestnut Crab. IIRC, you have a lot of Ant. planted. That looks like a big tree. How old? Have any photos of it in bloom or loaded with fruit? Looks like a beautiful tree, and what a lot of us are aiming for as far as wildlife trees go.

 

[greyphase]

Sorry to hear about the bear damage (I fortunately don't have to deal with that), but tell us more about that Chestnut Crab. IIRC, you have a lot of Ant. planted. That looks like a big tree. How old? Have any photos of it in bloom or loaded with fruit? Looks like a beautiful tree, and what a lot of us are aiming for as far as wildlife trees go.

I'm embarrassed to tell you about this tree. Planted in 1995 down in a shady hollow before I knew better :oops:. Too many nice big red oaks near it to give it enough light, It's struggled all it's life. It's had a few apples, but I've cut some scion from it in recent years and now have several Chestnut Crabs growing on B118 in much better sites. In hindsight I've made about all the mistakes you can make planting treeso_O. If this board had been around 20 years ago I'd have some tremendous trees by now.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bears are such a P.I.T.A. I'm thinking thru a way to keep them away from our trees at camp once they start to put on fruit. Time will tell.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

E - fence ?? Yep - about 12,000 volts worth !!!;)
Bullets ?? I'd love an early ( Sept. ) archery season here for bear. I don't think we can shoot bears with guns for crop damage - legally. If only !!:mad:

 

[greyphase]

It got my Ashmead Kernel tree last night. :mad::mad::mad: Took the central leader and all the limbs on one side of the tree.

And didn't bother to eat any of the apples. :mad::mad:

 

[Lot2Learn]

<expletive>

 

[Terrific_tom]

Haven't had any apple trees destroyed but I left my deer decoy by my ladder stand and a bear found it. The bear proceeded to tear the decoy into pieces. Found all the pieces except for 1 ear.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Ouch that sucks - when does PA's bear season start?

 

[greyphase]

3rd week of Nov. I have a nephew and a couple of cousins and their boys hunt in and around my place, but they haven't kill one yet.

Got creative and spread some dog poop around some of my bigger treeso_O:D. Probably won't help but can't hurt. :) Unless I step in it next time I'm checking my trees :eek:.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

100% pure skunk scent, Grey ??? Maybe give that a try. As far as I know, foxes are the only critter attracted to or tolerant of - skunk scent. ( I used to trap for years. )

Maybe get a pair of your underwear and socks good and sweaty and hang them out for the human factor !!! :eek: o_O Bears mean WAR !!!

 

[Terrific_tom]

100% pure skunk scent, Grey ??? Maybe give that a try. As far as I know, foxes are the only critter attracted to or tolerant of - skunk scent. ( I used to trap for years. )

Maybe get a pair of your underwear and socks good and sweaty and hang them out for the human factor !!! :eek: o_O Bears mean WAR !!!

I assure you that none of that will work on a determined bear. Had some one messing with a bear bait dumping dead skunks, mothballs and human crap but the bear kept coming to the bait. Bear prefer eating apples off of a tree. Very seldom will they eat the apples on the ground.

 

[SD51555]

Time to seek a depredation tag.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We seem to see the same at our camp, NH. The bigger bears are content to eat the easy stuff - drops or the lowest hangers. The biggest bear we ever saw up one of our big, old trees was about 100 to 150 lbs. and it didn't fare well. It tried to get a little too far out a limb ( it was up about 20 ft. off the ground ) and the limb drooped and the bear crashed to the ground with a helluva thud !!! It didn't try to climb it again. Most of our climbers are cubs and up to about 80 lbs. There are enough camps on our mountains with food plots, corn and apple trees that the bigger bears have refined their shopping to wandering from camp to camp and eating the drops and acorns ......... for the most part. ( I type this and now we'll have a disaster ) :mad::mad::(

 

[buckvelvet]

OMG, really sorry Grey! That sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!