During the winter season, the source of food for rodents tends to lessen or completely disappear and this is the period when you get to observe that so many trees are getting damaged by rodents. More trees are vulnerable to rodent attack during the winter season than during the growing season and the voles and rabbits are rodents which are capable of feeding on barks of trees. With this article, you would know efforts that needs to be made on how to protect your trees from rodents and also what to do when trees gets attacked or damaged.
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Tree Damages Caused By Rodents
A very hard time or season for every rodent is the winter season and this is because that is the period where the plants rodents feed off dies the most or they end up getting covered with a thick layer of snow.
This is what prompts these rodents to start feeding off the bark of trees and one thing you should know is that these rodents like mice, voles and rabbits all work hard to ensure that they get to feed on tasty and soft inner part of tree bark which is popularly referred to as the cambium layer.
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Rodents work their way to this layer by simply chewing off the hard and outer layer of the tree and even though the damage caused by a rodent on trees can be moderate, it could also result in a more serious condition. Removing the bark of trees causes the trees to girdle and this could in turn lead to the death of the tree. Gnawing can also lead to the death of the tree as well. Mice, rabbits, and voles like we mentioned earlier are rodents which consume the bark of trees during the winter season but beavers are also capable of causes damages to the tree as well.
You might be surprised when you notice the rodent damage on a tree as high as the trunk which is quite impossible for a mouse or rabbit to get to that height but you shouldn’t be too surprised, rather have it at the back of your mind that these rodents tends to use the snow as ladder, therefore, causing short rodents access to the top of trees. What you should do to trees damaged by rodents is pruning out areas that are affected and also being patient with the tree. Being patient here simply refers to offering the tree a chance to recover from what has attacked it.
How To Protect Your Trees From Rodents
Installing a barrier has proved to be the most effective way to ensure that your trees are protected from rodents. In the case of shrubs, installing a barrier while trying to protect your trees might involve making use of a wire mesh container and fixing it over plants. Constructing this type of cage might be too big for a tree so instead of doing that, experts have devised another way you can get to protect your trees from rodents. This method involves the use of a hardware mesh cloth which can be used in protecting trees.
While making use of a hardware mesh cloth in protecting a tree, ensure that the cloth is folded in such a way that it forms a cylinder around the tree and it should be used in wrapping about thirty inches into the ground and above the ground as well. This way, you are guaranteed that rabbits, mice, and voles would not be able to damage our trees but for trees that are still young, you can make use of plastic protection tubes to form a spiral around the trunks of young trees. This is also needed to protect trees underneath the soil surface so rodents won’t dig into it with ease.
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