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Problems with bears
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Posted by strudeldog (My Page) on Sat, Oct 31, 09 at 21:59
| How much problems do bears cause with young fruit trees. Apples, Pears, Kaki Persimmons, figs. My trees are young and am going to let a few fruit stay on next year. I have seen discussed Squirels and Racoons, but in searching previous posts for bear has many many hits but on the non-animal meaning of the word. They really went crazy on my Chestnut trees this year and broke down several limbs and tore up the trunk higher where it got smaller, I guess struggling to keep footing. I fear they will just flatten my young trees as soon as I leave fruit on them. I have a pretty heavy local population of them it seems. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Problems with bears
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| I think that your best bet would be to go out and shake the trees to make the fruit drop. If the fruit isn't on them, they shouldn't try to climb them. We have Black Bears here, but they don't come into my orchard.I go out every Fall and clean up..I don't leave anything out there that will attract any animal...almost any animal can do a lot of damage if they have a food source. Donna |
RE: Problems with bears
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| I think you have good reason to be concerned. And you can't just shake the fruit off. You might as well not have fruit trees if you aren't going to leave any fruit on the tree. I'm thinking they will tear up the trees worse than deer. I'd either build a really strong fence, remove the trees, or get ready for some serious damage. You might consider an electric fence. Done right, in conjunction with a regular fence, I think that would work. The Fruitnut |
RE: Problems with bears
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| There's problem bears around here, but they leave us alone because we have an aggressive medium size dog. Kind of like thieves: they hit the easiest targets first. |
RE: Problems with bears
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| Thanks for the input, I have 3-4 foot diameter 4 foot fencing incircling each tree, but they were only intent on detering the deer. I am sure it would not slow a bear for 1 second, I will have to think about the Electric fence, It would have to be Solar powered, as I have no electric handy. I guess I was wondering how much damage others had encountered. Has anyone had bears come in and push down multiple young trees to get the fruit. I have seen what they do to my neighbors corn, just flatening areas to the ground. I don't live at the site full time but I don't think for at least one local bear a dogs bark will bother him much, another neighbor has a pair of 100+ lb beasts and according to him the bear barely takes notice of their territorial attempts. I am not way out in the wilderness, but in foothills area with mixed agriculture and woods that is fairly populated, although a large wildlife management area is close by. |
RE: Problems with bears
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| Some places have year long resident bears and some experience bears that are basically migrating. My sister in N.CA is a victim of the latter and damage is reduced to trees that happen to be ripe when bears pass through. Last year they tore up a Jap. plum pretty good but left everything else alone. I'd be inclined to drive nails through sheets of ply-wood that I could move from tree to tree as fruit ripened. You could have a temperary light fence to stop people from accidentally stepping on them. |
RE: Problems with bears
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Nailboards (Plywood with 1.5" nails driven through, then flipped over so the nails are pointing upward) are the only deterrent I have found that works, and believe me I have tried just about everything. I have found that bears will rip through any type of fencing ( Although I haven't tried electric fencing), so don't even bother.
You may be lucky and the bears may not find your fruiting trees, but once they do, they will be back year after year. Unfortunately it sounds like they already know the address based on the comments on your Chestnut tree.
And yes, they simply rip down the branches to get at the fruit. Nothing is more frustrating! In the past they have also attacked my peach trees, but luckily those branches are very flexible. This year, no damage with the nailboards under each tree.
I recommend nailboards under the tree(s) as the fruit begins to ripen. Then fence in the area around the tree to keep people and pets from stepping on the boards.
Since you will not be at the location, this may not be practical, but I go out every morning at dawn and pick them up, and then I go out every evening at dusk to put them back down. Luckily, the bears in my area never came to visit during the daylight hours. Not yet at least. |
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