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squirrels stripping bark

17 years ago

I have two three story high evergreens in my small city yard. Every year the squirrels strip some bark and I loose needles. It always comes back. Some years better than others. In fact, the past couple of years they have been doing really well filling in more and more.

This year I had branches drastically cut from a neighbors enormous two story mulberry tree that hangs mostly over my driveway, front porch and house. After three years of spending my summers cleaning up berries, I had had it. I'm assuming that the squirrels either lost their home and needed bark to nest or lost berries to eat, because this year they went to town on my evergreens.

They are almost bare from needle loss. There is almost no bark left on the trunk.

I called a tree company and they want to treat the trees with an injection. They said the pepper would discourage the squirrels from stripping and a pesticide to kill the bugs. The cost is $100.00 per tree.

I would do this, but I want to make sure before spending so much money that this treatment addresses the problem. Seems to me that the squirrels did most of the damage in the spring. So, maybe I should wait till next spring to have the trees treated. Also, I am assuming that the trees get their nutrients from the bark. The arborist didn't say that the trees would get fed from this treatment. Or, is the needle loss coming from bugs?

I would appreciate any guidance offered on here.

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Comments (6)

spruceman
17 years ago
What kind of trees, specifically? What kind of squirrels?

--Spruce
dcsteg
17 years ago
You should consider trapping the squirrels and relocating them if they are causing that much grief.

Dave
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I think the branches were alive. I don't know that I'd call them twigs. Some of them are up to 8 feet long. There are approximately 20 stripped branches now that I look. Also, the tree is more like 35 - 40 feet tall. I think it's 20 years old. I agree that it shouldn't hurt the tree too much, but I'm jsut wondering what I should do. Do I need to prune off all those branches? What a pain. I would definitely require a ladder or some tree climbing. Would you guys try to reduce the chances that the animal will do this to another 20 branches next time? If so how? Thanks.
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How large is the tree? How much bark is missing, relative to the size of the trunk? The bare spot will likely heal over in time. Is it squirrels, or the lawn mower? I've never seen a squirrel strip bark enough to kill a tree.
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Two possibilities. Get some "deer corn" from a feed store and place it where they will do no damage. My grand daughters have a tree house and I built bird and squirrel feeders on nearby trees so they could feel like they were out of the city. They also put out yarn and cloth strips for the birds to put into their nests but I did see squirels carrying this also. If this fails then go to a feed store or Home depot in the gardening section with the chemicals you will find large green or yellow cylinders about 1 inch in diameter and 1.5 inches long with a hole through the middle just nail these about 4 ft off the ground and replace when gone until the squirrel population is controlled. Last year I had a bumper crop I counted 8 to 12 in my trees several times and 5 was the normal number. They dug up everything within 3 ft of the trunks. After a week of the spools I was down to 3 squirrels and I could tolerate the small amount of damage that they did. Put the spools where any dogs will not be able to get to any remains, at some point small pieces will fall to the ground but these are usually eaten by the squirrels. Bill
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jaro_in_montreal
17 years ago
The squirrels haven't gotten to my conifers yet, but they're on to my Japanese maples !
I'm trying out a spray-on product containing (long chemical formula ahead...) Benzyldiethyl [(2,6 xylyl carbamoyl) methyl] ammonium saccharide, 0.065%, which supposedly confronts animals with "a vile taste (non-toxic)... Penetrates tree bark and outer plant tissue to withstand rain"
It also warns "AVOID TASTING - extremely bitter and very unpleasant" (...so I haven't tasted it :O)
Sounds like that's the ticket.
spruceman
17 years ago
I had red squirrels strip bark from the top portion of the trunks of a lot of my red pines years ago, often girdling and killing the tops, and if not killing the top, leaving wounds that could not heal. I thinned the trees and they never did that again.

If the squirrels go from tree to tree you may have a real problem, but if there are trees they climb up, you can get these metal guards to put around the trunk and they can't climb up them if they are placed so they can't make an effective leap beyond them, if you get my idea.

Maybe the bitter chemical is the best idea.

--Spruce
interloper5
17 years ago
Watch out Ground hogs do the same thing ! I caught them redhanded !
jaro_in_montreal
17 years ago
Yeah, I think I've got a ground hog or gopher too (same thing ?) -- but presumably they won't like the bitter taste either!

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