keep them potted until you can build cages ...

do not water trees in pots like you would water annuals or perennials ... err towards the dry side ...

i am truly amazed that a squirrel would go after pungens ... did you actually see this occur??? how do you know it was the fuzzy tailed rat .. and not some other vermin ..???

ken

I've seen squirrels eat buds from deciduous trees, never thought about them eating the same from pines, make sense that they would though. Have seen deer and rabbit damage to pines. However if you have lots of pines, the damage seems inconsequential, as after a few mouthfuls they quickly have their fill of pine or so it would seem. The problem comes in when you only have one or two pines and lots of animals.

what i hate are the idiot bunnies... bite a piece off.. dont like the taste.. discard it.. bite another off.. same taste.. then another...

exactly at what point do you think to yourself.. maybe i should move on ...

brainless morons ...

ken

I have a massive Pinus strobus on the property, Scot -- the squirrels can have their fill of that one -- other than that, however, I have smaller, newer specimens only, Pinus densiflora 'Oculus Draconis', Pinus Parviflora 'Venus,' a small Pinus strobus 'Thunderhead,' and a Pinus mugo 'Mops' Squirrels haven't touched any of those latter pines....but...

What I'm paranoid about are these two new arrivals. The Pinus heldreicheii 'Smidtii' particularly (from Stanley and Sons) is a perfect, stunning miniature pine specimen. One rogue squirrel could decimate it.

Ken -- I'm certain it was grey squirrels who attacked my Picea pungens 'The Blues' last April. Like your despised rabbits, they chewed off every new growth bud, leaving them scattered around, not eating them but they kept trying the next, as if the flavor might change. They also destroyed almost evey bud on a nearby Camellia (which may have lured them in -- then after being frustrated by the Camellia's inedibility, they attacked my poor Picea out of spite). I love animals, in fact I'm a vegan, but that's pure evil. Do you know there are bounties on grey squirrels in England, where they have edged the native red squirrel virtually out of existence?

I have three mature Pinus nigras in my yard and for some reason, all winter long, the squirrels will bite the last 8-10 inches (~25cm) off many dozens of branches. All clean cuts and I never see them carried off for nests or or used for anything else. Are they going for sap? I dunno. When the snow melts it looks as if I've mulched under the trees with blobs of green needles. My cultivars of mugo, densiflora, sylvestris, pumila, heldreichii and others go untouched.

tj

i believe you

just making sure we werent making assumptions ...

ken

Around here it's the mice! I bait around flats of new grafts in the greenhouse every winter because it seems that the favorite deep winter treat is the buds of Pinus sylvestris. I haven't figured out if it's a particular stage of plant dormancy (like, new sap just rising?) or something else, but it seems as though they'll take a liking to one particular cultivar in a bed and that entire flat will be disbudded. GACK!

Ken, thanks for the tip on less watering for conifers in pots. Do you think there could be any danger at all to containerized conifers in scattering this Animal Repellant product around base of them and the perimeter of the containers? It contains "putrifecent egg solids," garlic oil, pepper, and several other lovely smelling products, but is completely naturely. Still, all plants are different in their sensitities, I would think, and this will undoubtedly saturate down to the roots at some point.

we recently did a couple posts on potting media.. and issues involved with such .... they should not be more than a page or two down .... if not on the first page ... i used the word media instead of soil.. with searching in mind ..

i have no clue about baits and repellents ... with inquisitive kids and a dog and a cat ... i would somehow isolate an area if i were to do it .... like some railroad ties and chicken wire.. though that would probably forgo the need off such .. since all but the smallest rodents would be kept out to begin with ... but only because i have some RR ties laying around, from the prior owner ...

some t-bar fence post would probably be cheaper and easier to deal with

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: i used the search for you ..

The annoying thing about squirrels is that thay dig all over the place.
Often they burry chestnuts -- I don't know how many chestnut seedlings I had to rip out of my garden this spring.

Anyway, I got so fed up with the squirrels that I purchased a trap to get rid of them.

I cought about six or eith of them in April, May and early June.
Here's a photo of an albino I caught a few weeks ago.

Squirrels are disgusting, nasty animals: When I approach the cage to take pictures or take it away (to a distant park), they get extremely excited -- they actually bark !

Anyway, they're not coming back.

In early spring, the squirrels seem quite mobile, searching for territory where to set up their nest.
By mid-June though, they seem to have settled down, so if your yard is clear of them, chances are its going to be a while before the next one shows up....

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Your squirrel in the trap isn't an albino. And of course they get excited when you approach and the 'bark' is a distress call.

Squirrels as a rule don't bother our conifers, rabbits yes, they are nuts. Some we fence right off if they are fragile and we keep 1/2 welded wire made up in small fences so all we have to do it slip it over the tree.

I also caught one black squirrel, which I guess maybe wasn't black?

One thing I neglected to mention about the squirrel problem here: Montreal is an island, and there are no squirrel predators to keep the population in check.
While the squirrel trapping appears to be working, I think it would be easier to bring in a few Marten.
But getting those is problematic....

I caught 16 a couple summers back. I took them to a local park and set them free.

I found out later the city prohibited relocating wild life to the park. If caught ...a $500.00 fine.

Something to think about.

Dae

A black squirrel is a grey squirrel, but yes they are black or variations. Your albino isn't, it is a light grey morph.

No hawks or owls fly over or around Montreal?:-) Quite the super squirrel predators.

Certainly no owls.
There may have been attempts to breed Peregrine falcons downtown some years ago, to control the pidgeon population.
Don't recall reading what happened to that.... certainly haven't seen any falcons recently.
What I have seen, on Mount Royal, which is the big park in the center of Montreal (more-or-less), is several turkey vultures.
Do those guys catch live prey ?
Anyway, seems to me Marten would be more reliable, as they would be stuck on the island just like the squirrels.... no possibility of flying off.

Wouldn't you know it.... An article about falcons in today's paper:

"About 10 pairs are nesting under Montreal bridges and on city office towers.
....Governments, wildlife biologists and a small army of interested citizens have been working hard to restore predators that we have inadvertently extirpated from many areas.color>"

That third squirrel shot is great!

Peregrine Falcons don't take squirrels though, they're bird predators which catch their prey in the air, not on the ground or in trees.

Martens would do the job, and so would Great Horned Owls, and to a smaller extent, Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and Goshawks.

Resin

Resin is spot on. The problem with introducing any predator is they can be pretty indiscriminate which can really upset the 2 legged mammals when fluffy and fido go on the menu.:-)

FYI an Albino

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:667588}}

Yes we've had the same problem with rabbits and deer. We have lots of deer in our area and the bucks love to rub their antlers on our conifers in the fall. Every year at least half a dozen of our small conifers (mostly species white spruce along our property line) have some rubbed bark and broken branches. Haven't noticed any specific squirell damage, but occasionally some of our conifer seedlings in containers are knocked over, maybe due to squirrels.

We also have quite a few small conifers on our property with missing or broken leaders, mostly from deer browsing or robins sitting on top of fresh young leaders and breaking them off. Our Fraiser fir had a beautiful leader in place and it was broken off last week, most likely by a bird.

Animal damage is pretty much a given in our area, and without lots of wire fences, cages, animal repellant sprays, etc. there's not much you can do about it.

Rabbits don't like us humans to redecorate 'their' areas. Even when I rearrange my pet bunnies' room (they have the run of the screen porch,) they have to remark everything (chin rubbing) and will try to move things back. Teeth don't work well for hauling, so it's easier to just nip some things to try to get them to move.

Also, bunnies teeth keep growing, so they chomp just to wear the teeth down.

And bunnies love a project! Once they decide to start in on that new wallpaper, or new sofa, or new pine tree, they will go back again and again. That's why mine are no longer allowed in the bedrooms. They love to sit and pull carpetfibers out of the backing and will sit and pull fibers till they have a bald spot in the rug, in an OCD kind of way.

So, I always plan to protect all new tree purchases when they are being planted in places where bunnies have nested in my yard. Wild bunnies think all new trees must be re-arranged too! Easiest for me is chicken wire around a tomato cage for support.

We camped at the North Ridge of the Grand Canyon years ago. They had something called a Kayibob (spelling?) squirrel there which we were told was found only in that area. It was a black squirrel with a white tale and it lived on the pine trees in that area. We were told that if those pine trees were to disappear so would the squirrels. They were cute and were all over the camp grounds there. Rev. Wayne Rouse

I'm thinking those rabbits in Kens' yard aren't such dumb bunnies. It's just retaliation for his removal of all the maples!

;^) +oM