Anyone give up on sap bags?

[wobbletop]

Anyone else going to give up on sap bags?

I only tap 20 or so trees per year so have been using sap bags with home made pvc holders. This year I've had to replace almost half of my bags due to holes created by forest critters. Usually I get 3 or 4 I need to replace, but this year it's way up. I even have a strip of duct tape along the bottom to try to prevent nibbling at the corners, but even that isn't helping.

Shame since I bought bags in bulk last year so I have a big supply.

Any other tips for keeping the bags from being nibbled before I switch to pails on the ground next year?

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Are you sure its actually animals and not the bags getting some ice in them and the wind causing them to bang off the trees? That was my biggest problem with bags, I never saw animal bites and I was running 200 bags at a time. Im using tubing now, but I do know your pain.

[heus]

I gave up on them a long time ago when one season, red squirrels destroyed almost 200 bags in a day. I put out new ones, and they did the same thing.

[Bucket Head]

Wow. That's bad! Never used bags but I'd give up on them too with that issue. Used buckets for years- they have their troubles too- but the critters can't chew through them!

Steve

[MapleMark753]

I too feel your pain regarding the bags. We use them. Same issue with squirrels too. But being a stubborn Scandinavian, we keep using them every year so far. Only mitigating factor is that to a degree the squirrels are trainable. First round goes to the squirrels always. Second round we leave two/three bags WITH the chews in them. Third round we cut it to two with chews, and the squirrels seem to habituate to them and leave the rest alone from then on. Dont know why but they do. Critter tax I guess...
Truthfully, we do want to go to tubing, its been the few thousand for all the equipment and pumps that we haven't been able to save up for yet.
good luck
Mark

[wobbletop]

Pretty obvious critter damage. 21250

[Old County Road]

I used sap bags successfully for years before I started having problems with rodents chewing on them. I then did two things. The first was to buy some rat traps which I nailed randomly to some of the trees below the sap bags and baited them with peanut butter. Worked pretty well. The second thing was I bought 100 used buckets. I prefer the bags to the buckets as they hold more sap, are easier to pour, and require less clean up and storage space - but if rodents decide to bite into them you are in a bad situation. I like the idea of leaving a few sacrificial leakers.

This year I put put 30 buckets, 25 sap sacks, and setup about 120 taps on 3/16th tubing. The tubing is out performing the buckets and saps probably 2 to 1 in terms of sap yield and boy is it a lot easier.

One other thing on the sap sacks - I would rinse them after the season and them reuse them the second season as an outer layer on a double bag system - as a few times I think I did have leaks caused by the sacks abrading against the trees.

[Michael Greer]

I was never tempted by them. Too much plastic trash in the Maple industry.

[VTnewguy]

I don't use any bags, but i am religious about trying to have no food residue on my hands when working on lines or building drops.

[WildRiver]

We had bad trouble with gray squirrels 3 years ago, trapped them heavy then and had little trouble last year. This year they're back and we trapped a bunch again. We use peanut butter placed on a steel trap pan and set very lightly. Mostly head catches. We have neighbors who feed deer and squirrels in the winter, that's the problem.

[thecabinguy]

I’m partially giving up my bags this season after a couple of bad seasons with the bags. I’m going to try my hand at some tubing this season. I have had bag failures caused by multiple factors. I am up to about 170 taps now. Two seasons ago, I was unable to collect before a severe freeze that caused almost all of the completely full bags to expand and split the seam at the bottom. As soon as it started to melt, the sap just dripped out. Ugh, lost several hundred gallons. Last season it was many pin holes that caused massive sap loss. Could be critters, could be bags bumping the trees in the wind. The bags I’ve been getting seem thinner too and more prone to failure. Enough for me. Too much work to have all of that sap loss. Some areas are just impractical for tubing, so I will stick with the bags for those. In the areas that I can, I’m trying some 3/16 lines. It will be a learning curve, but it has to be better. Guess i will find out.

[calvertbrothers]

I’m partially giving up my bags this season after a couple of bad seasons with the bags. I’m going to try my hand at some tubing this season. I have had bag failures caused by multiple factors. I am up to about 170 taps now. Two seasons ago, I was unable to collect before a severe freeze that caused almost all of the completely full bags to expand and split the seam at the bottom. As soon as it started to melt, the sap just dripped out. Ugh, lost several hundred gallons. Last season it was many pin holes that caused massive sap loss. Could be critters, could be bags bumping the trees in the wind. The bags I’ve been getting seem thinner too and more prone to failure. Enough for me. Too much work to have all of that sap loss. Some areas are just impractical for tubing, so I will stick with the bags for those. In the areas that I can, I’m trying some 3/16 lines. It will be a learning curve, but it has to be better. Guess i will find out.

I’ve gave up on bags myself. But this year I am looking at smoky lake maple sap bags. They are supposed to be thicker.

[Pdiamond]

I have used them two years in a row now and had no problems, except for the goat got one when we let him loose last spring. Guess he liked sap too.

[buckeye gold]

I gave up on them 4 years ago. Some because of damage, but mostly went to tubing. Old age drove the change as much as anything, got tired of packing sap.

[thecabinguy]

Just an update. My first attempt at 3/16 tubing has worked out better than I expected. I have been amazed at how much more sap I am getting from my lines vs the bags. Sap has run for several days longer on the lines than the bags. I have one line running still after 3 very warm days with no freeze. The bags were done 3 days ago. I have all red maples and they are very stingy at times. I’m already trying to see where else I can run a lines for next season. I should be down to only a few bags on lone trees that are good producers. I’ve learned a lot for next season. Used sap sak holders for sale. Lol.

[BobU]

We still hang over 400 bags, the squirrels have always been an issue, we tape all the bags with duct tape seems to really cut down on chewed bags.22339

[tpathoulas]

Over the last coupleof years we have moved to more taps on 3/16 tubing. We are about 3:1 taps on tubing to bags. All of our bags are placed so we can drive our Ranger right to them. Funny thing is this year we did not lose any bags to crytters chewing on them for for a few years. We did nothing to stop the critters, no trapping, hunting or taping bags. Go figure! Next year we plan to run 1-2 more lines and decrease the bags again. We will always have a few bags to show the youngsters the process.

[wobbletop]

We only do 20 bags and didn't have any chews this year. We only put a piece of folded over duct tape on the bottom corners.

[Swingpure]

I gave up on them a long time ago when one season, red squirrels destroyed almost 200 bags in a day. I put out new ones, and they did the same thing.

I haven’t had any sap lines or bags up yet, but around here the trouble maker squirrels are the red squirrels. The black and grey squirrels seem to keep to themselves. Are black and grey squirrels also troublesome when it comes to chewing on bags and lines?

[buckeye gold]

I haven’t had any sap lines or bags up yet, but around here the trouble maker squirrels are the red squirrels. The black and grey squirrels seem to keep to themselves. Are black and grey squirrels also troublesome when it comes to chewing on bags and lines?

YES YES AND YES. They are all vial creatures and instruments of the devil.

[Pdiamond]

I've used bags in my woods now for the past five years and they have never bothered any of them. I prefer the bags greatly over buckets. I find the squirrels mighty tasty when in my special stew or cooked over an open fire on a stick, yummy.