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["D Stubbs" <dsmndel@gmail.com>]

With 400 trees to care for and the same problem with voles killing trees - years ago I went to the local hardware store that replaces  window screens and asked for the old screen to be saved from the trash. They were most obliging - I got a pickup full by summers end - saved me a pile of money from buying new hardware cloth. I just double fold over the ends to secure.
Del

On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 4:30 PM, Sarah Kehler Ewing <skkewing@yahoo.com> wrote:

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