Tubing destruction

[sawyer40]

About 75% of my tubing has been chewed by something. Does anybody have any ideas what might have done this?

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/jerseygirlhgs/syruptap-1.jpg

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Wish I knew too as I have had a lot of problems with this the last couple of years and it is expensive to fix and very time consuming.

[markcasper]

It looks like bear damage to me. It is strange to see it take place in the off season. Bear only bother mine during the season.

[sawyer40]

well I seen a bear in the sugar bush and during our deer season Dec 8-13 we seen bear several times that week not just one but several differant bears. But just what the heck would a bear chew all my lines for?

[dano2840]

well if you figure out what it was, a .22 works for squirrels but that doesnt look like a squirrle,
Do you have a trail cam for deer? or a friend who has one? good way to figure out whats doing it, if it is bear call your game warden, if you have a big enough operation he might let you shoot it, we had 4 acres of vegies last year on our farm that the deer were destroying game warden told us to shoot as many as was necessary, we stopped after 6 because we would shoot a deer one night and bring the heard down to 17 and it would be replaced by another the next night STILL 17. so we gave up and let them have their way, this year we put chicken wire ontop of the veggies, just laid it on them and the deer stayed out, but if you find its a bear i would call up your local game warden, and get it removed or shoot the thing and push it over a bank both work

[Haynes Forest Products]

Its called SHOOT,SHUTUP and DIG! Porcupines and coons love chewing on things. We screw rat traps to the trees for the squirrls and if something bigger gets wacked they can get away. I saw a buddies mainlines and laterals chewed every 2" the entire woods everything had to be replaced.

[maplwrks]

Haynes is correct-----Porcupines

[jtbucket]

when i worked with a guy we always had a problem w this. We have seen deer,coyotes,squiirrels and porcupines. I have to agree looks like porcupine, to much for squirrels.

[mapleman3]

yep close to the tree looks like porkys! they make good stew though if you do get them..

[maple flats]

How recent was the damage? I walked mine all within the last 3 weeks and had now chewing at all. Might be i should make it a point to revisit again to see.
In the last few years i have cleaned my tubing using hydrogen peroxide and only had one section chewed in those years. It appeared that i missed that section while cleaning because i could see gunk, slime, and some stringy stuff in some of the line that had been chewed. Critters can smell thru the plastic and either sap soured to keck or even the salts from chlorine cleaning solution can be smelled by them. The peroxide leaves nothing but pure water, and no rinsing.

[sawyer40]

I coated the road in to this sugarbush with shale the first of November and everything looked good then. so it's been in the last 6 weeks.

[markcasper]

We do not have porcupine that I know of in my area. Bear will go after it if there is fresh sap in the lines, presumably because of the sweet. Now last season I had no problem as the whole spring was cool and am sure they did not wake up from their slumber until it was over. The spring before was a joke. We had 2 80 degree days the end of March and after that I had nothing but problems.

[peacemaker]

sawyer are there porkys by u ? i would say deer or squirrels looks like theres some pines in there maybe reds

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I had sections of lateral lines 10+ feet long last year chewed off and drug down the hill for 50 to 100 feet and then they found a small flat spot on the steep hillside and then chewed the stuff to pieces. I have never seen or heard of a porcupine in the area where I make syrup which is the same area I grew up and spent most of my life, so I doubt it is that. Might be raccoons, I have never heard of that but there is no sodium present, so I don't know???

[sawyer40]

porkys are few and far between here. I'm going to let my dad look at things as he spent many years running trap lines in the Adirondacks in N.Y. What ever did this had a jaw spread of 2 1/2-3" from side to side. Lines streached from tree to tree 3' off the ground are chewed off on both ends as well as the hard black fitting that is nailed to the tree chewed to bitts. many of the taps 3-4' from the ground are chewed right off and gone. I had 150 taps in this area and all are affected in some way. This was all new last spring and I had hoped to get a few years out of it . Squirrels did not do this I have had squirrel dammage before. It almost looks like a dog(I know it's not)has bit the lines and chewed it you can see the teeth puncture marks in it.

[peacemaker]

deer or bear i bet

[markcasper]

Your damage sounds like bear. You say you had whole spiles missing. That is what the bear did to mine, they'd take and chew the entire spile off and I'd find them 15-20 feet away from the tree. As I said before, it only happened at the later part of the season and not during the off season, so I am still baffled by what you describe.

[sawyer40]

I think my wife has the answer. she says it's the jersey devil

[MaplePancakeMan]

I had a squirrel take a drop and chew it right out of the tree pull it out of the bucket and i saw him 20 feet up in the tree chewing on it. the thing looked like swiss cheese after he finally dropped it.

[gmcooper]

That first pic really looks like squirrel chews to me. We have had our share of them over the past 15+ years. They will cover quite a large area as far as damage. Squirrels will also chew lines into small peices once they hit the ground. They are also known for taking spiles and tees when they get chewing the tubing. We have porcupines in our largest bush and I have only seen a couple spots where they have chewed tubing since 1990. They do not travel much at all and usually can be found if you find any fresh boughs on the ground. Ours seem to stay in the hemlocks. BTW they do a nice job of pruning all the greens off hemlock mixed in with maples. Deer damage usually has more of a chewed look to it. They rarely bite right thru lines, looks almost like you chewed them yourself. We never had any bear damage but from all I have heard it is very easy to identify by the size of the bite marks and tooth size.

[Brian Ryther]

I had to remove a porcupine from a bush this summer. The dammage he did was similar to the pic you posted. The lines were chewed through unlike deer damage that looks like they use it like chewing gum.

[sawyer40]

I have more samples in my truck that show the actual teeth marks. Sort of like k 9 teeth marks and at this point were about 98% sure it's bear. I have seen at least 3 sets of bear tracks in the snow over the weekend on another part of the farm. As I have had squirrel dammage in the past this is completly differant.

[Chad802]

I to have had problems with my lines being chewed up. It took some snow
for me to figure that it were coyotes. had to replace 25% of my drops and
a lot tubing. have`nt had any trouble with them in while. hope it stays
that way.

[Sweber]

I had a bunch of lines chewed up by squirrels this past year. They even chewed the taps down to nubs. And I don't use bleach in my lines, only water. Took an entire weekend to repair all, but the real kicker was the ice storm we had! Wow my 275+ taps are a mess! Main line down(broken) tubing snapped. And the trees took a beating! At what point do you say, "I shouldn't tap this tree this year"?

[maple flats]

When you do identify whatever it was, be sure to keep the pictures and an itemization of damage. If it is an animal that has a season you can get permits to remove them, if it has no closed season just go for it. A dead porky chews no more, bears are tasty if you use the right recipe. Whatever it is do all you can to get rid of it, discouraging it will not work after it has the bad habit.

[brookledge]

Sweber
You need to assess your damage tree by tree. The trees with alot of damage should not be tapped for atleast 3-5 yrs. and the best is to see how they respond. You want all the energy to force it into budding new shoots and getting some leaves back. As for the trees that had minor damage you may want to reduce a tap or two.
After you determine how many taps you will end up with then you can decide if it is worth fixing the lines in time for the up comming season.
I have heard of some producers around Western Ma who will not be tapping. And I'm sure there will be alot more who will only tap a fraction of their normal taps. I have never had widespread damage but have been told by others that if you let them sit they will most likely bounce back unless the tree was already in distress
Keith

[MapleBud]

I found articla in are Michigan maplesyrup association news letter under the tech support chewing aniamls. Is to use a very concentrated cayenne pepper sauce mixed with 1/2 gallon of petroleum jelly convinces the little devils they dont like tubing unless they are mexican squirrels or raccoons just to drop lines and tubing that is near to or touching the trees. but wear rubber gloves and just dab on a little. complete cover is not necessary. I have done this for the last 2 years and it seem to work well cuts down on alot of repairs.

[michiganfarmer]

Im thinking about putting some schedual 40 PVC out for mainlines. They wont chew through that!

[michiganfarmer]

Hey! I moved up to a wood loader! ALRIGHT!!!!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Good job NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!

[michiganfarmer]

LOL, yes sir