Deer eating young tree leaves

[coolbrze0]

Anything I can spray on my younger apple, pear, & cherry trees to keep the deer from eating the leaves? I've seen the Deer/Rabbit sprays that smell like rotten eggs. Just wondering if there was something more commercialized for spraying 4 dozen trees...

 

[catscratch]

Wish I knew of a spray that could help you. So far I've been limited to cages.

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[Native Hunter]

Cages are the answer, because even if the trees did survive the browsing, they become the target of rubbing as they get bigger. We have low deer numbers here, but it would still be a long shot to plant a fruit tree and expect it to survive without a cage. Even the trees in my yard have to be caged.

 

[dogghr]

Cage. But if you want to spray, 1/3 milk, 2/3 water. Milk doesn't need be soured. Works on anything. Do weekly or after rain.

 

[KSQ2]

Cage. But if you want to spray, 1/3 milk, 2/3 water. Milk doesn't need be soured. Works on anything. Do weekly or after rain.

Interesting...

 

[coolbrze0]

Shoot, forgot to mention, I've got 85 fruit trees and cageed 25 or so of them & got sick of making cages haha. Another wrench to throw into the plans... we have a serious bear problem here. Going 5 strand high tensile electric this winter but until then... I'm worried the milk / water mix might make things worse w/ them...

 

[THE LLC]

With bears, you will never be able to protect those trees forever.

 

[Mennoniteman]

With bears, you will never be able to protect those trees forever.

The only effective answer to bears is lead capsules packaged in little brass tubes.

 

[coolbrze0]

Hmmm all the orchards & chicken coops I've seen around here have 4-6 HT electric & no bear problems. Am I missing something?

 

[coolbrze0]

The only effective answer to bears is lead capsules packaged in little brass tubes.

Very true & even damage permits will help but I'm not big on shooting just to bury the bears. Plus, the permits allow shooting at night w/ spotlights but I don't have time for that. It only takes 1 med size bear to come in & it can destroy a tree pretty quickly, trust me!

 

[RGrizzzz]

Bears can be a real nussiance. A number of years ago, we were using Blue-X tubes on trees. One summer, bear(s) came along and destroyed every blue tube. Didn't touch many of the standard yellowish ones. There were probably 50 seedlings in those tubes. My guess is he didn't like blue, or it was really fun!

 

[Mennoniteman]

I had a 200 gallon water tank that I used for watering trees, sitting outside my tractor shed for several years, until the other week a bear came along and destroyed it by poking holes in it at several different corners as he was walking by. Why did he (or she) do it? I'm guessing that he himself didn't know why he did it. I guess he was just being a bear, and bears are just naturally destructive.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Years ago, I Had a minnow trap and bucket in the creek, maybe 150 yards from the house. I came back a few hours later, and the bucket was now UPstream. A quick inspection showed a giant bite mark in the bucket. Damned bears!!

 

[coolbrze0]

You guys got that right, bears are a PITA! I thought about using Liquid Fence to deter the deer on my 1st year trees but dang if I'm not afraid bears won't come in to that rotten egg smell & ruin them worse than the deer nibbling on the leaves...

 

[coolbrze0]

Just an update - deer we slaughtering my young bare root trees I planted in Feb so I bit the bullet & bought some Liquid Fence. Sprayed twice now about a week apart & it seems to be working pretty well keeping the deer from eating the leaves. Haven't had a problem w/ bears busting the trees from the rotten egg/puke smell (yet)....