We all love bunnies, don't we?
They are so soft, furry and cute, especially at Easter time when they hop around hiding coloured eggs everywhere. And they are delicious too. We don't have any wild rabbits in northern Finland (although there are some around Helsinki area), so the bunnies I'm talking about are either mountain hare Lepus timidus (we call it "forest hare" probably because it lives in the forest and there aren't any mountains around here) or brown hare Lepus europaeus. The latter is much bigger and it doesn't usually chance its colour for winter like the mountain hare. It's also more an invasive species here up north.
The reason why I don't know which I'm actually talking about is, that I haven't really seen the animal itself, but the tracks it has been leaving all around my yard. And as I'm neither a hunter nor a good tracker, I can't really tell the species by its tracks. I just know it's a hare and that's all.
Don't get me wrong, I actually like the hare. Last winter when no-one had introduced the idea of NOT feeding birds around this building, I had a bird feeder on my yard. The hare came to eat some nuts at night as well, when there was nobody watching. Now that it's prohibited to feed animals here, the hare came to eat my trees and shrubs instead.
I did realise this would happen, and I bought some wire netting that I successfully installed around two of the trees in autumn. Yes, only two. Because the wire netting was really heavy, wanting to roll back to its original rolled position and because I was doing the job all by myself. I was exhausted after the two trees and only covered the trunks of the rest with a plastic roll. "Trunk" doesn't really describe that feature well though, as my trees are still really small, and their trunks are more like twigs.
I have crabapples, an apple tree, some cherry trees and cherry shrubs and two plum trees. Only two of the trees now have a wire netting around them. As it has been snowing, the plastic roll doesn't really protect any part of the rest of the trees, as the surface of the snow is already above that level. So when the hare come to feast on my trees, there's not much if any protection for the tree. They have been eating some branches and the main trunk itself above the plastic roll.
Some branches have disappeared completely, but the trunks have been peeled. Last year I read in a garden magazine, that this could possibly be fixed by wrapping some plastic wrap around the area where the bite marks are. This way the tree could mend itself and grow new bark. Of course the protective plastic foil should be placed as soon as the damage has been done, in order to prevent the area from drying out. When spring arrives and the sunshine starts warming the trunk, it will start re-growing the bark. This is why it has to be clear plastic wrapping, as the sun light has to be able to penetrate it. This is exactly what I did, and now it remains to be seen if it works or not. If you try the same trick, please tell me how did it go.
I also acquired some birch tar oil from my mother and daubed it around the trunks, branches and the poles supporting the trees. There are different types of this product, used as a "pesticide" or rather as a medium to keep the pests away. There's one for snails and one for mammals. I hope this works against rodents as well.
I'm not sure if there's any fail proof way to protect the trees against rodents. The animals I would be talking about are european water vole Arvicola amphibius as the worst of them and some smaller species of the same kind. They don't just chew some branches, but peel the trunk around the base or chew up the roots. In spring you can lift up the whole tree and see that the roots are gone. Some say that the snow around the base should be treaded so that it becomes compressed and the rodents can't make their paths through it any more. I haven't done that, so I hope there aren't any hungry voles around. And if there are, I hope that the birch tar oil works on them.
The reason why I don't know which I'm actually talking about is, that I haven't really seen the animal itself, but the tracks it has been leaving all around my yard. And as I'm neither a hunter nor a good tracker, I can't really tell the species by its tracks. I just know it's a hare and that's all.
Don't get me wrong, I actually like the hare. Last winter when no-one had introduced the idea of NOT feeding birds around this building, I had a bird feeder on my yard. The hare came to eat some nuts at night as well, when there was nobody watching. Now that it's prohibited to feed animals here, the hare came to eat my trees and shrubs instead.
I did realise this would happen, and I bought some wire netting that I successfully installed around two of the trees in autumn. Yes, only two. Because the wire netting was really heavy, wanting to roll back to its original rolled position and because I was doing the job all by myself. I was exhausted after the two trees and only covered the trunks of the rest with a plastic roll. "Trunk" doesn't really describe that feature well though, as my trees are still really small, and their trunks are more like twigs.
I have crabapples, an apple tree, some cherry trees and cherry shrubs and two plum trees. Only two of the trees now have a wire netting around them. As it has been snowing, the plastic roll doesn't really protect any part of the rest of the trees, as the surface of the snow is already above that level. So when the hare come to feast on my trees, there's not much if any protection for the tree. They have been eating some branches and the main trunk itself above the plastic roll.
Some branches have disappeared completely, but the trunks have been peeled. Last year I read in a garden magazine, that this could possibly be fixed by wrapping some plastic wrap around the area where the bite marks are. This way the tree could mend itself and grow new bark. Of course the protective plastic foil should be placed as soon as the damage has been done, in order to prevent the area from drying out. When spring arrives and the sunshine starts warming the trunk, it will start re-growing the bark. This is why it has to be clear plastic wrapping, as the sun light has to be able to penetrate it. This is exactly what I did, and now it remains to be seen if it works or not. If you try the same trick, please tell me how did it go.
'Hopa' with plastic wrap taped around its main branch.
I also acquired some birch tar oil from my mother and daubed it around the trunks, branches and the poles supporting the trees. There are different types of this product, used as a "pesticide" or rather as a medium to keep the pests away. There's one for snails and one for mammals. I hope this works against rodents as well.
I'm not sure if there's any fail proof way to protect the trees against rodents. The animals I would be talking about are european water vole Arvicola amphibius as the worst of them and some smaller species of the same kind. They don't just chew some branches, but peel the trunk around the base or chew up the roots. In spring you can lift up the whole tree and see that the roots are gone. Some say that the snow around the base should be treaded so that it becomes compressed and the rodents can't make their paths through it any more. I haven't done that, so I hope there aren't any hungry voles around. And if there are, I hope that the birch tar oil works on them.
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