Small diameter tree damage

So I just noticed a week ago that two small trees we planted last year have the bark eaten or scraped off about a foot or a little more from the bottom. I mean they cleaned it off completely. Questions are I have to assume it’s rabbits, wasn’t aware they did that, can’t be deer as is in the back yard is fenced 6ft privacy fenced in, also to low to be them and I know what that looks like. So I need to figure out how to dispatch of these animals in the suburbs. Have a medium size dog so traps aren’t an option. Suppose I need to up my pellet gun game or subsonic 22lr? Second question what do I do with the trees, I put on the plastic protection sleeves on, should I wrap the tree with something?

Get a pellet gun. Ive shot tons of rabbits with my pellet gun over the years and throw in the field behind my house and the eagles come and get them. Once sighted in it will dispatch them quickly. They may not drop on the spot, but they wont go far usually.

I had rabbits do that to a small tree that was less than 3 years old at my previous house too. They’re savages! I wasn’t sure if it had killed the tree initially, so I let it be. Well it turns out tree was in fact dead from it because nothing was growing.

A .177 caliber pellet rifle will definitely work. I have the Ruger Blackhawk Elite. It came with a pre-mounted scope. You might consider one with a suppressor on the end of the barrel to keep the noise down. My Ruger has one and it sounds like someone opening a beer or pop can when I shoot. I would also advise the use of pointed pellets.

There was a recent post about subsonic 22lr rounds that are quieter than a pellet gun. Stupid links, type CCI quiet into the search bar

CCI Quiet

Id just be worried about the distance a 22 will travel if in a development. Pellet gun isnt going far.

Could also be voles, which would be a significantly more difficult shot..

CaptainMusky wrote:

Id just be worried about the distance a 22 will travel if in a development. Pellet gun isnt going far.

Great point.

Wildlifeguy wrote:

Could also be voles, which would be a significantly more difficult shot..

You’d never even see them. You would have to trap those.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Wildlifeguy wrote:</div>
Could also be voles, which would be a significantly more difficult shot..

You’d never even see them. You would have to trap those.

That was kinda the joke…

Im almost 100% certain its rabbits. Guessing this is probably an apple or maple tree too. They dont tend to mess with other trees. I had them do this to an apple tree and I just got a wrap to put around it and the tree survived.

i have rabbits……never bothered trees. but when they mess with Glenn’s garden…

John i use live traps. thing is youy can get the younger ones….but the older mature ones musta been around the block!!!!

i question voles….there more underground??? and a foot or more above the ground??? my money is on the easter bunny!!!

Rabbits dont mess around with the harder trees they go after the soft barked ones like I mentioned. They are a PITA.

Just put PVC pipe or a similar wrap around the bottom, then you dont need to kill the rabbits. Unless you are going to eat them then kill away.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Im almost 100% certain its rabbits. Guessing this is probably an apple or maple tree too

Correct on one of them. One crab apple and one a new strain of elm that is immune to the disease.

Cool you got a new elm. Those are very nice trees.

mark-bruzek wrote:

Unless you are going to eat them then kill away.

Something always finds the ones I shoot. Coyote, Wolf, Fox or Eagles.

There are a few neighborhoods near the cities where it won’t matter what you use. 9mm, .380, .45, a shotgun….it will just fit in with the rest of the random shots fired while committing crimes.

In all seriousness, a Gamo will do the job. Years ago we flipped a house and lived in it for a couple years while finishing the basement before listing it…and I must’ve shot a couple hundred 13-lined ground squirrels, some rabbits, and a couple crows. They’re quiet and shockingly accurate out of the box. Stick with the softer, slower lead pellets as they’re more accurate and almost silent.

tswoboda wrote:

There was a recent post about subsonic 22lr rounds that are quieter than a pellet gun. Stupid links, type CCI quiet into the search bar

CCI Quiet

I just put a squirrel in the trash this morning with a quiet round. I use those with the hollow point that fragmants into three pieces. really does a number when head shot. AND, they are quieter than a pellets rifle.

John Rasmussen wrote:

So I just noticed a week ago that two small trees we planted last year have the bark eaten or scraped off about a foot or a little more from the bottom. I mean they cleaned it off completely.

Unfortunately, this is typical of rabbit damage and trees almost never recover from girdleing. They may make it a year or two, but trees are very sensitive to bark damage on the trunk.

I’m about 50-50 with trying to save trees that have rabbit damage. I’ve used the spray on bark damage spray coating and then wrapped the tree with tree bandage. Unfortunately, the problem is that sometimes I’ve waited years and thought the tree was going to live and then it dies and so all that growing time was wasted. It’s really down to how much you spent on the trees vs how much you value the growth time because you can’t make up for time.

Young trees have to be protected from rabbit/rodent damage and another common one is urban deer love to make a rub on them in the fall and this also can kill them. Attached is a picture of the American elm (Princeton disease-resistant variety) that I planted a year ago. Notice the bark protector AND the 3 stakes around the tree to keep the bucks away. Using this arrangement, I’ve never had any damage or problems.

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Sounds like a rabbit problem to me John. Had this problem a few years ago and it is better now after I put some cheap corrugated plastic wrap around the trees but still a few fur balls around that need to be removed. Quality pellet gun is my instrument of choice.

Late edit, the photo that Grouse posted above is almost exactly what I have done and has worked well for me.

Thanks

Yeah, you have to apply something immediately in the spring or you have no shot at saving it. Same thing has happened to every mountain ash I have had, but that is sapsuckers and woodpeckers. I dont even bother planting those anymore

Thanks guys, I have an old pump pellet gun somewhere, might still be at my dads place that I can grab and try, or maybe time for a new toy. Grouse that is what I was worried about, do I hope they survive or just call it a loss and dig them up and start over.

Did you have snow up to the damaged area? If so it’s voles. They will eat down as the snow melts. They took out all my apple trees one year. No snow to walk on, it’s probably rabbits. What type of trees?

It’s definitely going to die in a year or two if it’s totally girdled down to the wood. The tree primarily passes nutrients and water between the roots and the canopy below the bark. I think the tree will die anyway, but there’s a technique called bridge grafting that might work. Looks ugly AF though.

TH wrote:

Did you have snow up to the damaged area? If so it’s voles. They will eat down as the snow melts. They took out all my apple trees one year. No snow to walk on, it’s probably rabbits. What type of trees?

Not enough snow in the middle of the yard to cover it up. They were a crab apple and a new elm

If you were closer I could send over my nuisance animal removal specialists

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picklerick wrote:

It’s definitely going to die in a year or two if it’s totally girdled down to the wood. The tree primarily passes nutrients and water between the roots and the canopy below the bark. I think the tree will die anyway, but there’s a technique called bridge grafting that might work. Looks ugly AF though.

That’s what I thought. We had a deer rake a small maple in the front yard a few years ago and it’s still looking ok for now. Also growing up we had a springer chew a good chunk of bark off a younger maple and fast forward 35 years and it’s a huge healthy tree. I should have took pics but there is literally no bark from an inch or two off the ground to like I said about a foot plus up the trees.

B-man wrote:

If you were closer I’d send over my nuisance animal removal team

Maybe you can add that to the tackle gig, those boys might retire before college.

B-man wrote:

If you were closer I could send over my nuisance animal removal specialists

Nice! This is my specialist. 3 so far in the past year in our suburban fenced in yard.

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If the bark is chewed off all the way around the trunk you might as well dig it up and start over. Always put some kind of protection on the trunk. Rabbits are a PIA!