Revamping my 3/16 lines to reduce maintenance

[mol1jb]

Hey all,

So in IL most of us are at the end of our season. At this point you start reflect on what you learned and to think ahead at what next season will look like. From the 2017 season we expanded our 3/16 lines from 60 to 120 taps and from 2k ft of lines to around 8k ft of 3/16 lines. When our 3/16 was working well it was amazing. But we had some serious maintenance issues called animals that plagued our season. We are tapping on park district land so any sort of animal removal or thinning is not an option. So I had this idea that I have not heard of before that may reduce maintenance quite a bit on our 3/16 lines. As many of you know the main area of damage on 3/16 tubing setup is around the tree where the tubing lines and tree touch. Sections of 3/16 between trees had almost zero maintenance issues. The first image below is a rough drawing of what I mean.

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So my idea to combat this is to next season install my 3/16 lines with as little tree contact as possible. See next rough drawing

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Basically I am thinking of instead of running our 3/16 from tree to tree we would run each main 3/16 lateral as more of a main line up each slope and run longer individual tap lines to each tree off the main 3/16 lateral. At each tree there would only be a tap connecting the drop to the tree as the end line hooks had the most area of tubing and tree contact and thus were constantly torn up by animal chew. As you can see the idea is to create a setup where the tubing to tree contact is as little as possible to drastically reduce line maintenance. This idea is still in its infancy and in theory sounds good but in practical applications I am not sure yet if this would be a good solution to our animal maintenance problems. I look forward to your comments.

[DrTimPerkins]

Alternatively you could use some of the commercially available squirrel-guard that slips over tubing and put it in the problem areas.

[mol1jb]

Alternatively you could use some of the commercially available squirrel-guard that slips over tubing and put it in the problem areas.

Do you have a link for these guards?

[Cedar Eater]

Has anyone tried wrapping some aluminum foil around the lines where they touch the trees?

[DrTimPerkins]

Do you have a link for these guards?

I think they advertise in the Maple News.

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/man-vs-squirrel/115/

[DrTimPerkins]

Has anyone tried wrapping some aluminum foil around the lines where they touch the trees?

Might work. We've had very few problems since we stopped using Clorox to sanitize lines.

[georgelineman]

Dr.Tim this is my first year with 3/16 just 3 200 feet runs. What's the best way and what to use to clean it? I guess looking at that last post Clorox is not that good?

Thanks, george

[mol1jb]

Dr.Tim this is my first year with 3/16 just 3 200 feet runs. What's the best way and what to use to clean it? I guess looking at that last post Clorox is not that good?

Thanks, george

Depends on what you want. Some use water, some use food grade hydrogen peroxide and water solution, some just let lines air dry.

[maple flats]

While not 100% control but we spray a mist of a super hot (spicy) mixture on the tubing at the trees, it cut squirrel damage by about 95% for us. We re-apply after 4-5 rains, or 1 all day rain. To make it we mix habanero hot sauce, 2 drops of dish detergent, 2 drops of salad oil in a 16 oz. spray bottle. the hot sauce brand is Vicious Viper CaJohn's Fiery Foods. It deters the squirrels. Use rubber gloves or your hands will burn for a long time.

[Ghs57]

While not 100% control but we spray a mist of a super hot (spicy) mixture on the tubing at the trees, it cut squirrel damage by about 95% for us. We re-apply after 4-5 rains, or 1 all day rain. To make it we mix habanero hot sauce, 2 drops of dish detergent, 2 drops of salad oil in a 16 oz. spray bottle. the hot sauce brand is Vicious Viper CaJohn's Fiery Foods. It deters the squirrels. Use rubber gloves or your hands will burn for a long time.

...and don't touch your eyes, or any other sensitive area for that matter, until you have thoroughly washed your hands. I made that mistake once while cooking with habaneros. :o !!!!!

[wurmdert]

I wonder if you mixed the hot sauce with some melted petroleum jelly if it would last longer. I know it does with trapping lures.

[mol1jb]

While not 100% control but we spray a mist of a super hot (spicy) mixture on the tubing at the trees, it cut squirrel damage by about 95% for us. We re-apply after 4-5 rains, or 1 all day rain. To make it we mix habanero hot sauce, 2 drops of dish detergent, 2 drops of salad oil in a 16 oz. spray bottle. the hot sauce brand is Vicious Viper CaJohn's Fiery Foods. It deters the squirrels. Use rubber gloves or your hands will burn for a long time.

That sounds like a good recipe. I will keep that in mind.

[mol1jb]

So I wanted to provide an update to my revamp idea. I ended up redoing all my runs in the hopes to reduce maintenance due to squirrel damage. My plan was to keep the lines off the trees as much as possible. My method was primarily using braided rope to support tubing as it runs through the woods.

19951

Then at a maple tree I would use braided rope instead of an end line hook to keep tubing off the tree as much as possible.

The results:
2018 season I spent on average 3 days a week in the woods and around 4 hours a day making major repairs due to squirrel damage.

2019 season I spent 2 day a week in the woods around 1 hour mostly just walking the lines making a few repairs.

In summary the reductions in maintenance has been a huge time save and a welcome change.