Chewed tubing

[brookledge]

In 30 plus years of tapping I have never experienced what happened today.
I was checking the lines with the vacuum on and I was looking for leaks. I could here one so as I got closer I could see the drop line was hanging. When I got to the tree I noticed the drop line and about ten feet of the lateral line had been chewed real bad.
The thing that amazed me was that the tap had been pulled out of the tree and was gone. I last checked the lines about a week ago before the cold weather set in and it was ok. During the cold spell there was enough new snow so that there was no prints in the snow to allow me to determine what did it. I looked around the area but did not find the tap and about 1 foot of the drop.
I have had squirrel and deer chew the lines before but never had something actually pull so hard that the tap came out
Keith

[HanginAround]

I would guess bear I think.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[royalmaple]

Something must have really wanted it.

Kevin send me the drop and I'll post it.

[Rob Harvey]

I'm thinking sasquatch.

[mountainvan]

Now that's funny!!!Sasquatch!!

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Keith,

I had a squirrel chew up spouts and laterals really bad within 3 days of tapping. Guess he found out there was sap coming thru them. Never seen anything like it. Even nearly chewed the heads off of some of my Leader spouts.

[brookledge]

I have seen bad squirrel damage too but I know how hard I have to pull to get a tap out of the tree so what ever pulled the tap out had to work at it.
Keith

[maplehound]

The coons seem to be what does the most damage in my woods. Next it would be the squirel. Not sure if I have ever had much damage from deer except for once when they rub it up and down the tree.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Johnny Cuervo]

Yesterday my wife and I watched 3 young squirrels chew about 5 quarter size holes in a horizontal branch, and then they hung upside down and drank for about 3 hours.

[maplehound]

3 HOURS??????????????? I would think you would have had squirel stew by that time. LOL

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I took care of my problem, bang, bang.

[maple flats]

Knock on wood but I had only one little repair from last year from chewing damage. I think it was the peroxide I use to clean with, no salts for the critters to smell. Other years I have had major damage and the deer use my woods for a wintering yard. In my little 15 acres I have 17 deer there all winter once the deep snow arrives and they stay til it melts enough to navigate well enough to get around again. I see the deer everytime I get to the sugarhouse during that time. They just moved on about 10 or 15 days ago. We can't feed them by law but I do cut down a red or silver maple every 2-3 days when they are there. These are ones marked for TSI removal and the deer have the buds completely eaten off in less than 2 days, about 75-90% the first nite. They listen for the chainsaw and in less that 15 minutes after I drop the tree and leave they are eating the buds but they are not eating my tubing with the peroxide and I got no mold or other yuckies in the tubing.

[Hal]

Two years ago I had a coyote chew up a long lateral that comes down across my neighbors pasture. I gave my neighbor a hard time for not sitting up in the attic window all night with a rifle. It would have been an easy shot from there. A friend of mine says he thinks the coyotes jump up and play trapeze on his tubing until it breaks, then drink the sap.

The first day sap ran this year I had a vacuum leak that took me a long time to find. It turned out that the line hung on the end of an old lumber pile, quite convenient for the chipmunks that live there. Further up the same line I found where "somebody" got a little careless with the chainsaw last summer. It looked like a big sharp toothed rodent had chewed about three feet of it, so that only half of the tube was left.