blue sap sacks

[maplefarmer]

I know i have asked this in the past, how do people keep the animals from biting holes in the bottom corner of the sap sacks and loosing all the sap out. have tried duct taping bottom of bag, tried spraying deer repellent on bags, nothing seems to work. So depressing to go into a woods with 350 bags hanging and 95% leaking

[prairietapper]

that would be depressing. I would switch to lines and buckets on the ground before I used bags. but that is just my opinion

[maple flats]

Try a spray made up of the hottest hot sauce you can find, then mix it in water and spray the sap bags. Then use rubber gloves when you dump them. If it's raining when you go to dump them you need to wipe the outside dry before dumping or some of the hot sauce will get in the sap as you dump. This works for tubing anyways.

[heus]

I tried using 200 bags one season and the squirrels decimated them. I tried the double layer of duct tape at the bottom, too. On two occasions I got to the woods and every single one of the 200 bags had a bottom corner punctured by red squirrels.

[JesterV]

I've been using bags for 12 years. Never had that happen. Something else for me to worry about now. We use cayenne pepper for the garden, but I'd be worried about getting it in the sap. Please keep us posted.

[johnallin]

I've been using bags since 2008 and have not seen damage from critters. I did have one year when bags were leaking from the corners though.
It's a real pisser to go out to collect and find half your sap is on the ground and running from the corners of the bags. Turned out to be bad bags.
Look for a double seal on the bottom of the bag or, bags made in USA and not overseas.
At only 45 cents ea this is no time to get cheap...

[maplefarmer]

Thank all you guys for the input, we did go to tsc today and got a concentrated deer off formula called liquid fence, and sprayed it on bags as we replaced them.only problem may be the new bag being plastic almost seems water repellant, hope a little of this spray stays on bags. I was trying to figure out if it was deer, squirrel, or ground hog damage, this stuffs stinks terribly, hoping it stops any critter from biting the bags, will post in afew days and let know if it worked.

[blaircountysugarin85]

Wow I hope you have alot of help I couldn't imagine dumping 350 bags a day that's a full time job in itself!

[heus]

I've been using bags since 2008 and have not seen damage from critters. I did have one year when bags were leaking from the corners though.
It's a real pisser to go out to collect and find half your sap is on the ground and running from the corners of the bags. Turned out to be bad bags.
Look for a double seal on the bottom of the bag or, bags made in USA and not overseas.
At only 45 cents ea this is no time to get cheap...
I thought that was my problem too until I saw the two tiny dracula marks at the bottom of every bag

[johnallin]

I thought that was my problem too until I saw the two tiny dracula marks at the bottom of every bag

Whoops...that would not be a bad bag, but tree rats, just as you said.

[maplefarmer]

well, we collected sap today, not a great run, and the bags we replaced from the tree rat chews, did not have much sap in them, most of the run wascouple days ago. the deer off spray we sprayed the sap sacks with did help some, but still had probably 10% that we replaced again tonite. guess the way to solve this is go to buckets.