Squirrels Are Killing My Trees

[Mr.Gadgets]

My wife came and told me that a squirrel is stripping the bark off one of our trees. I told her that they don't do that, but I'd take a look anyway. Boy, was I wrong. A large squirrel was ripping the bark off a tree as we watched, with binoculars. I decided I had enough of that and went to get the Wildcat .22. When I returned, . . . . . . yep, he was gone. We both kept our eyes glued to that tree for the next several days, but he never returned.
Has anyone else experienced this strange behavior? I have no idea what he was doing.

 

[broekzwans]

It looks like a squirrel is building a nest, they use the stripped of bark to fill the nest. Squirrels stripping trees is more common but I've never seen this amount of damage

 

[plinker]

Rodents teeth continually grow, and therefore they MUST gnaw to wear them down. You can see the damage wherever they reside. They love soft metals like aluminum also. Think roof vents. Damage like you have is the most severe I've seen on a tree. Looks more like what a flying beaver might do. Wow!

 

[amoxom]

I take squirrels with extreme prejudice! That one needs knocking over for sure!

 

[mobilemail]

That's a problem I would love to help with!!!

 

[linsfreak]

Holy poop! I live by alot of trees, and never seen nothing like that in my life! WOW!!!!!!!

 

[Mentolio]

I've been told they sometimes eat (some) tree barks when their normal food sources dry up, but that's just ridiculous.

 

[Wolverick]

Porcupines do that to hard maples in the winter. They`ll stay in the same tree for days until almost all of the bark is removed. I have never seen a squirrel do that before.

 

[Guest]

Maybe, and this is simple conjecture but the squirrel might have been going after bugs/grubs behind the bark?

 

[Mrshosted]

Treat the tree with safari for the bugs then grease the squirrel 2nd you may want to spray some dormant oil on the wound of the tree 

 

[fuznut]

Spring is the hardest time of the year for squirrels. This behavior is being driven by hunger.
Buy a bag of corn and or black sun flower seeds and make available to them. And you should
have no further damage. If damage is still happening after providing food, you have an individual
who is insane, kill his crazy ass !!! 

 

[pbguns]

I wouldn't be surprised a squirrel doing that to the trees (I have gophers attacking my tree roots now).
We have lost 4-5 large trees in our backyard over the past 5-6 years.
Really impacted our backyard in a negative way (great shade and privacy trees).
Hope you don't experience any more damage. Take that crazy nutter out!

Couple weeks ago this was one of our back patio screen doors.




Its the GS that keep me busy in the backyard....this last year I get waves of them trying to set up shop in our back yard (not going to happen).




New batch emerged just this week: 

 

[Mr.Gadgets]

Update:  They never returned to that tree and it's starting to heal over. Noticed another tree in the front yard that has fresh bark stripping now. Apparently it's a one time attack to get the bark they need. I guess I'm going to have to employ a strict No Squirrels at all policy.

 

[scubajeeper]

Squirrels are cute and fuzzy, destructive and tasty!

 

[Nueces]

"Mr.Gadgets"Update:  They never returned to that tree and it's starting to heal over. Noticed another tree in the front yard that has fresh bark stripping now. Apparently it's a one time attack to get the bark they need. I guess I'm going to have to employ a strict No Squirrels at all policy.

Well its fun to shoot them but if you get bored with it ... get a good cat.

 

[scubajeeper]

Feed them some JSB's and they'll stop that!

 

[Marksman3006]

Damn.......lol. Your squirrels are on meth or something lol!!!

 

[Dan25]

During times of famine they will strip bark and eat the inner bark. If they get territorial they might start scent marking your house and chew wood trim as they did on my house. My trusty RWS 34 in .22 accounted for an average of 75 a year before I upgraded to a 25 Marauder. Problem solved.