They can go out to very small branches.

Guess these branches I pruned a couple of weeks ago wasn't enough.

All this porky damage from about a week ago, seems this is the
worst time of the year,..getting active, cant blame them,..just the call of nature.
This poor plum got attacked again, top..you see old damage from 2 years ago, I had some wire around the trunk but wasn't enough. The bottom [green] was a branch knocked off from a fallen poplar.

There's a pest I'm glad I don't have to worry about. Do you also get moose? My Alaskan brother says they are worse than bears.

Thanks for sharing...never seen porcupine damage, Thank God we don't have them here...rabbits are a pain here but you have a climbing rabbit...I feel for you.

I get Porkies in northern Minnesota as well. They haven't been able to get past the deer fence to my fruit trees, but they sure have damaged several of my oak trees.

On average, I have to kill one or two about every year. I usually have a gun in my truck year round so I can shoot them if I see one in my area. The biggest one that I've shot was nearly 35#s. I found it after our dog came back with a face full of quills. Not, fun pulling quills out of a 120# dog. Definitely a two man job.

It is the only animal that I don't want anywhere near my property. Even the Dept of Natural Resources lets you shoot them on sight now.

they are so cute :)

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Thank God they don't wander this far into WIsconsin.

Believe it or not I found one hiding in a pile of rocks Saturday a mile from my house here in the middle of the desert. He was big, fat, and sassy. I've seen them in the mountains of southern NM and around Amarillo. Saw a huge one in Alaska.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 11:52

Franktank, how bout some backup story. I'm real curious how that cute little package ended up in your hand.

That's a hedgehog!

Thank you all!

I really don't know why people have hedgehogs for pets.
Other then cute looking pretty useless, can't interact with them.

I'm babysitting one for my daughter, that thing never gets used to me, always hisses at me when I pick her up and wants to roll up. Guess she's not used to me now,...how long will it take?

She poops in the rolling wheel and runs over it,..a bit stupid, lol.
I'm washing her every second day, the wheel every day,..not sure how many miles she runs every night...allot! She thinks that a night out running will get her into another territory, but when stepping out, finds out that she's back home again lol.

..

Think these would make better pets...there is a YouTube video on one!

Pulling
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Climbing
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HVM..you never seen moose in my orchard?
Posted allot!
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Nowhere as cute

Yikes! I cant imagine the problems with those moose!

We have the occasional porky here. I used to have Scottish deer hounds and they would find every one. I used to have to keep a bottle of rompun in the fridge. Give the dog a shot. 2 minutes later pull all the quills out while he sleeps.

Harvest-

That was from a StarTribune article (MSP newspaper). I've only seem them in zoos. I'll have to ask my brother if he has ever seen any while out hunting or on his game cameras, but i've never heard anyone talk about them. I know maps show them occupying the north woods of Wisconsin.

When I was young (a long time ago) Vermont was overrun with porcupines, you would see them all the time in the woods, and they caused alot of damage on both trees and buildings (they would chew up the wood to get any minerals they could). Then the State re-introduced Fishers (which eat them), and the population dropped like a rock. Now I rarely see any at all.

Very destructive in the Maine woods. I have had 3 in one apple tree. Once one cut and dropped to the ground every water sprout. There were hundreds on the ground. I should have hired that one. You have heard of the show, Alaska, the Last Frontier. They are the west coast Switzers and we are the east coast Switzers. Like them we do what needs to be done. As a farmer you need to manage properly.

Konrad,
I've been complaining all winter about the hundreds of cottontails I have and then I read this and my problems now seem smaller. Porcupines who knew?! Here is a picture of my biggest problem in Kansas :0)