Who ate all my fruit and chew the branches?

[bben]

About a month ago I came back from a week absence to my place only to find that all of the fruit trees were ripped off their fruit, all of it. I did not find anything left out of about 6 trees between apples and pears. Also, damage is showing in several branches as if something chewed on them. Other branches were broken off. Since the trees are fence caged and some of the fruit taken was inside the fence and other fruit was as high as 15 to 20 feet in the canopy, I can say deer was not responsible.
Who could have done this? I even suspected the neighbor but I doubt they would chew the branches.

 

[tooln]

Coon's?

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

If the cages were bent and damaged I'd say bears if not coons or porcupines.

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

Crows will take pears from my trees they can be a real pest.

 

[MRBB]

I say porcupines are up near the top of the list here, they will eat bark and fruit too.

had these been smaller tree's I was going to say deer, I have had deer push down tree fencing and eat tree's down to about a 1+ inch dia, like they were eating candy!

I get a lot of bears here but in all my yrs I have ever had one chew on a branch, they are very good at picking fruit off without damaging the limbs, well unless they break them when they climb out on the too thin one's
its crazy how a BIG bear can walk out on such small limbs at times and NOT break them too, I have one BIG female that shows up almost daily now and she will go out limbs maybe 2-3 inches in Dia, and then will bend down about 3-4-5 ft as she climbs, and they just bounce back, and they will be 15-20+ ft up too, keep waiting to find her out there knocked out from a fall ! HAHA!

 

[H20fwler]

Given your location I would say you were mugged by a gang of coons.

 

[bben]

The war is on for the coons
Thanks

 

[H20fwler]

The war is on for the coons
Thanks

I've been at war with them for years!
From January-July I trap them with the coon cuff style traps, they are pretty coon specific. I like the Z traps they have a push-pull trigger, I bait with little marshmallows. In Ohio you can nuisance trap them year round if they are bothering anything....you just can't let them go or relocate them (I want them dead anyway). The only time they get a break from me is August-Jan because I don't want to bother the deer. Wish they were worth something nobody traps for them anymore and they are like a Hydra kill one and three take it's place.

 

[MRBB]

I have about 10+ coons here every night, and lots of apple tree's never in 30+ yrs here have I seen one chew on a branch?
and same thing at my house, have about 20 fruit tree's of different fruits, and a few coons there every evening(neighbor like to feed stray cats there and leave food out??)
but never had a lick of tree damage there, minus rabbits ion winter time eating some bark off the bases?


maybe I'm just lucky??
but I dont't see coons being the critter here?

 

[bben]

I have about 10+ coons here every night, and lots of apple tree's never in 30+ yrs here have I seen one chew on a branch?
and same thing at my house, have about 20 fruit tree's of different fruits, and a few coons there every evening(neighbor like to feed stray cats there and leave food out??)
but never had a lick of tree damage there, minus rabbits ion winter time eating some bark off the bases?


maybe I'm just lucky??
but I dont't see coons being the critter here?

The chewing has been high in the canopy. 4 to 15ft high and they also broke some branches. so it can't be rabbits up there. We have no bears here either.
I placed a couple of live traps and caught a few opossums using dog food as bait. Could they be the culprit?

 

[MRBB]

HAHA< wasn't saying it was rabbits ! haha

opossums, I have them here too, never seen them chew tree limbs at any height
Porcupines, are known to eat bark and I get them here as well, they have eaten a lot of bark off certain tree's,but never my fruit tree;s?
I could just be very lucky due to I have a lot of food for critters here that they will eat before they resort to eating bark??

but I just don't see why a coon or opossum would eat bark?or shew limbs
there isn't any value in it for them< is my view?
most animals don't waste energy doing things that don't benefit them.
both of them critters can easily pick the fruit off without damaging the tree branches/bark>

can you post any picture of the damaged limbs, maybe we can offer more help after seeing it??

you can also try placing a trail cam at the base of the tree too , to capture what is going up the tree?

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

Set a trail cam watching the trees.

 

[bben]

I placed a camera but it was after all the fruit was gone so I'm not sure the culprit would show. The camera faced the field where the orchard sits and not the tree cage. Since mid September I got pics of opossums, turkeys, an unicorn doe and coons (5 in one pic). Never seen or heard of porcupines around here.
I will take pictures of the branch damage next time I make it there.

 

[MRBB]

wow all your apples are gone?
I have some tree's here that gold them till spring time, last yr, one whole tree, had about a 100 apples and NOTHING wanted to eat them< and the tree never dropepd them till new leaves started this spring, they were all wrinkled up brown black things, and THEN they ate them?
LOL

 

[bben]

wow all your apples are gone?
I have some tree's here that gold them till spring time, last yr, one whole tree, had about a 100 apples and NOTHING wanted to eat them< and the tree never dropepd them till new leaves started this spring, they were all wrinkled up brown black things, and THEN they ate them?
LOL

There weren't many apples to begin with but there were a few hundred pears. There was not a single piece of fruit left. They weren't even ripe yet.

 

[MRBB]

any time food is in a small location, or tree or pile, a bear will prefer it over natural food, its easier for them to put on calories and requires less work on there parts, bears are LAZY eaters, and the easier it is the better they like it
average black bear requires 20,000 calories a DAY, to be ready for winter
so, the less they have to burn to get food in them, the better it is for them
so fruit tree's are easy meals, and I doubt they care if there ripe or not , just easy food, is how they see them/

and a bear will eat about anything if there hungry? Lol

 

[4wanderingeyes]

MRBB, while I will agree with you that it is hard to blame a bear for him just trying to survive, but when they start destroying your investments, some times the herd needs to be thinned. It is very hard to have them destroy stuff that you have a lot of time, or money into, and then shrug your shoulders and say, its just a bear being a bear. While I havent had them wreck my apple trees yet, but that is just because they arent producing apples yet. I have had them knock over my grill and smash it, chew through empty coolers, and rip my deer cameras off trees and destroy them. They will take my garbage cans and take off with them. Just because they are hungry, that doesnt give them a free pass from me. I dont give coon a free pass either!

 

[Catscratch]

I've seen groundhogs pretty high up trees. I think they might eat bark, and are certainly heavy enough to break some smaller branches.

I've seen rabbits in trees. I don't want anyone thinking I'm crazy, but I've hunted and shot rabbits from trees. The first time I saw it was on a really cold winter weekend while pheasant hunting. I was walking a shelterbelt and noticed odd markings on trees. Got to looking and it looked like teeth marks. Noticed movement and there was a damn rabbit 12ft up a tree setting on a limb... so I shot it. Turned out to be a lot of them in that shelterbelt that day and I ended up hunting tree climbing rabbits instead of pheasants. The thing is, this patch of trees had been hit by a tornado at some point and a lot of them were growing at a heavy slant. It apparently wasn't any problem for them to climb up crooked trees for an easy meal. To this day, when I think of that hunt I'm reminded of Monty Python and his killer rabbits. For some reason watching rabbits fall from the trees just didn't seem natural.

 

[greyphase]

For some reason watching rabbits fall from the trees just didn't seem natural.

:eek::D

 

[MRBB]

4wandering eye's
could you maybe then tell me HOW a bear is supposed to KNOW what amounts of money you spent or hours?
they CANNOT
you plant things they eat, you have trash grills or?? that SMELL like things they can EAT
and well sadly, your living in a bears world
odds are you moved into a area bears were LONG before you were about?
its NOT there fault for trying ti live

and YES they should be hunted, never said other wise

BUT shooting a bear for eating food? is rather wrong in my eye's
Unless you growing things for a living and there entering your lively hood(AKA Crop damage to farmers or the likes)

its rather Illegal in MOST places to take matters into your own hands
and again, its rather IMO, WRONG to do so as well

an animal doesn't live by the dollar system, or care about last yr, or 6 yrs ago

they live NOW and do what they can to make it to tomorrow
that's there game
if they find food, they eat it
mother nature at work LOL