North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sarah Kehler Ewing <skkewing@yahoo.com>]

I don't have rabbits ringing my trees, but I do have mice that like to remove 
the bark from the base of my trees (never on the poplar which I'd actually 
like killed, just my expensive trees).   My husband came up with a solution 
that has had 100% effectiveness for us over the last 4 years on about 200 
trees.

I make 6" diameter hardware cloth collars to protect my trees from these 
nibbling critters.  I buy 50 foot rolls of hardware cloth (woven metal screen 
with 1/4" holes) and then cut them in half lengthwise using tin snips to 
generate 100 feet of collar material that is about 18" tall.  I then cut it 
to the length I need and use three 4" pieces of wire to "twist tie" it 
together in three places and then I bend the wire like a staple several 
squares above/below with each end of the wire to stabilize the wire even 
more.  If I'm putting the collar on a whip: I tie it and then slide it over 
the tree, if its a branched tree then I tie it while it's around the tree 
which is obviously much more difficult.  I also make much larger collars 
(sometimes 2' in diameter) to protect our bush cherries, etc.  Once the 
collar is around the tree I twist it while pushing down to embed it several 
inches into the dirt to make it more difficult for the critters to just dig 
under
 it.  It is somewhat expensive, time consuming and hard on the skin (its 
almost impossible to make these while wearing leather gloves!), but it only 
needs to be done once as opposed to wrapping trees every fall.  I also 
recommend putting the collars on with the cut edge down to make it less 
painful to reach inside to prune off branches growing inside the collar!

Hope this helps,

Sarah Ewing
Zone 3b, Edm, AB


--- On Fri, 10/24/08, ROBERT W JUDY A HARTMAN <hartmansfruit@msn.com> wrote:

> From: ROBERT W JUDY A HARTMAN <hartmansfruit@msn.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Subject:  Bait for Wild Rabbits
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 4:07 AM
> We haven't had any problems with rabbits for about the
> last 8 - 10 years.  I have only seen one rabbit but I am
> well aware that there could be more.  We also have coyotes
> who have taken a couple of our cats in the last few months. 
> I thought they would get the rabbit as well but maybe the
> rabbit or rabbits go into a hole somewhere and hide at
> night.  As far as wrapping the trees would be like wrapping
> the rabbits since we have about 5000 trees at this location
> because it is a small nursery.
> 
> Bob
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Toni Pralle<mailto:toni.pralle@gmail.com> 
>   To:
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> 
>   Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:52 PM
>   Subject: [NAFEX] Subject: Bait for Wild Rabbits
> 
> 
>   >Maybe this has been covered before but does anyone
> have an idea for a bait to catch a wild rabbit?  We used to
> call them jack rabbits when I was a kid living in another
> state.  I did a search on the internet and there was a
> suggestion of apples and carrots.  Well there are apples all
> over the place and carrots that are in the ground sticking
> up above the ground so that isn't going to do much good.
>  What I am concerned about is that I have had rabbits eat
> the bark on young trees in the winter when there isn't a
> lot of other food for them to eat and I would like to catch
> the rabbit before that happens.
>   Any ideas of something that is more enticing than apples
> and carrots or do I have to wait until all the other food
> sources are gone?>
> 
>   You have A rabbit? ONE rabbit?? Wait just a minute until
> I can quit laughing! 
>   Never mind, I can't quit. 
>   I would venture to guess you have a whole herd of
> rabbits! Wrap your trees. If the snow gets deep, they'll
> sit on the snow bank and eat the trees' branches. 
>   Jack rabbits and cotton tails are two different kinds of
> rabbits. I would guess you have cotton tails. Ever heard the
> saying, "Breed like rabbits."? Believe me, you
> have more than one rabbit.
>   Even though it sounds like I'm laughing at you,
> I'm not. Well, at least not in an unkind way ;-) 
>   I have 5 dogs ( Akita, GSD, Golden, Big Black Dog, and
> Brown dog.) and a dozen barn cats. I also have rabbits. I
> wrap my trees. This year I am going to add 6 ft. tall snow
> fence. It's a fabric type stuff and the holes are so
> small I hope the bunnies can't eat my trees through the
> holes. I WILL win even if I die trying! I feel sorry for the
> people fighting with deer. At least those stay on the other
> side of my fence.......so far. 
> 
>   -- 
>   Toni in zone 4 Iowa USA
>   ************************************************
>  
> http://www.stopanimalid.org/<http://www.stopanimalid.org/>
>   http://nonais.org/<http://nonais.org/>
>   It is not the function of our Government to keep the
> citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the
> citizen to keep the Government from falling into error. 
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>   Chief Judge at the War-Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg
>   ************************************************
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