Revamping my 3/16 lines to reduce maintenance

[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.

F2C251C7-777E-406B-8B64-98EA2247F187.jpg

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.