Wildlife Damage??

[MapleCreekFarm]

I've been in my woods getting ready for sap season. It's not been going too bad. I've had vac on to most of the woods now and been able to hold close to 25", but I've found the handiwork of some critter that seems to love chewing on drop lines. It chewed a few so much they're almost in 2 pieces. But usually just a 3-6" section with abundant tooth marks. It's chewed on a few laterals but seems to like the semi rigid drop lines better. Also seems to stay pretty close to the ground. Any ideas on which critter might act like that. I'm thinking the short list of suspects would be coons, possums or coyotes. I wonder if I shouldn't try moving my laterals as high as possible during the off season.

[JoeJ]

Without seeing a picture of the damage, it sound to me that you have a fisher in your woods. Good luck getting rid of it. I have been tormented with fishers for 10 years. They chew anywhere from 100 to 250 of my drops each year and probably 150 spots on the laterals. If it is a fisher, talk to your area fish and game warden about a wildlife nuisance permit to trap it.

[BAP]

Squirrels are also a big chewer of tubing. If it is mostly chewed low to the ground, then the best way to prevent it in the off season is to push your lines up as much as you can to keep the ground walking critters from reaching the tubing. Critters that climb trees are impossible to stop, well expect with lethal methods.

[buckeye gold]

It's squirrels most likely. Tools of the devil, they are. I put up around 400 feet of new tubing this fall just repairing squirrel damage

[DrTimPerkins]

Squirrel chews are like knife cuts or slices. Coyote, fisher, raccoon bites are more pointy bites. Deer will chew on tubing like gum. Look closely and think about what type of teeth caused the damage and you can often figure it out.

[ecp]

We get a lot of deer chewing on drops.

[MapleCreekFarm]

I didn't think about the deer. Chewing on it like gum is a good description of what I'm seeing. I've fixed a few squirrel slices and it's definitely not squirrels. I was thinking coons..... I'll see if I can post a picture tomorrow.

[maple flats]

I get nuisance permits every year to address that. The NYS DEC for years told me deer don't chew maple tubing, my evidence showed otherwise, now they issue nuisance permits every year. I no longer hunt, but I never had any problems recruiting agents to do the harvest. New Your allows agents, check with your state game dept.