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Home Guy Home Guy is offline
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Default squirrels attacking maple trees

Matt wrote:

I have a couple of big silver maples, 40 years old and about three
feet in diameter.

I've noticed in the past few years that fox squirrels are trying to
dig a hole in each tree by clawing and biting. Each wound is in the
trunk, about chest high, where a small limb has been removed years
ago and the trunk is growing out around the stub. So there is
already a kind of recess in the trunk, and they are trying to turn
it into a hole. I have noticed that sometimes a lot of thin sap
runs out of the wound and wets the side of the trunk.


What you should have done when the limb was removed was to perform a
correct clean-cut of the limb at the trunk and then paint over the stub
with pruning paint. The black tarry paint will water-proof the wood
(and it is wood that you've just exposed - lumber if you will) and will
prevent this wood from rotting while the tree grows over it. If you
look at exposed wood that hasn't been painted, if the area is large
enough the tree can't grow over it fast enough before it rots and
prevents the bark from completing it's growth over it, leaving a
permanent cavity that will just continue to rot and eventually become
the reason why the tree must be cut down.

With that said, I also notice that squirrels will chew on the TOP side
of horizontal branches of maples (particularly sugar maples) and will
remove large areas of bark on the top side close to the trunk (THE SIDE
YOU CAN'T SEE FROM THE GROUND) and will eventually kill the branch.

The squirrels are doing this because there is probably too many of them
in your local area and not enough food supply, and they're going after
the bark because there's not much else for them to eat.

Again, applying a thick coating of black pruning paint seems to repel
them from continuing to damage the branch, and the coating will give the
branch a fighting chance to grow it's bark back. I've done this on a
few of my maple trees, and to a chestnut, and have also applied the
paint to the top side of other branches that show no (or minimal)
squirrel damage.

What is the best way to stop the damage and make the trees live
longer?


You've got to approach this like a carpenter, and imagine that just
under the bark surface what you have is wood - lumber. And just like
your deck will rot in a few years when it's exposed rain and dampness,
so too will the inside of a tree unless you take steps to waterproof it
and prevent cavities from forming. The bark must be allowed to grow
over these exposed areas, and the bark won't or can't grow back over top
of rotted-out wood and cavities.

And maybe buy a few 40-lb bags of black-oil or striped sunflower seeds
and throw some down every few days for the squirrels to eat - instead of
them eating the bark of your trees.