I really, really hate mice! I nearly cried when I saw this. I doubt my masking tape trick will work on these and I fear they are a lost cause.

Very sorry for ya, 160. I love planting and growing trees and I know how it hurts to lose one. I have no idea if that one will survive or not. But to make yourself feel better, I would try to plant a new one ASAP.

Lost two 4 year old Trees like that last year.... the wind blew off the tree bands/ rings. I thought it was rabbits

Rabbits got my 5 to 1 graft.
The snow got deeper than the protector.

I always thought that was rabbit damage.

I'll have to check my little apple trees. I have rabbit tubes on them, not sure if they will keep out mice.

I see that gnawing in the brushpiles all the time.

Oh . . . . I thought this was a post about computer products.

I've seen a lot of damage like that on ornamental shrubs. Usually caused by Voles.

That makes sense also.

I catch more of those in the basement than mice.

Last year I was talking to a cherry farmer with the same problem. I suggested he build and put up kestrel boxes. They are big time mice eaters. I have talk to him yet this year. I see most of the trees wrapped with a white plastic wrap they most likely get at the ag. store.

It looks like they are lost, but you can still take grafts from them and put them on other trees if you have more trees You will keep the type of apple. Several different varieties can be grown on the same trunk.

I use aluminum foil under the plastic wrap from a garden store. No problems.

I have been putting 1\4 inch hardware cloth around mine it should be 2 feet tall. Under the snow protect them from mice. My trees are out in the open so rabbits have not been a problem. But them mice have nothing to do all winter.

Always prune your trees to a single trunk and the first whirl of branches should be 4 or 5 feet up this helps with both the rabbit and mice..

Deer are more of a problem now and all summer

Last year 2018 I lost three apple trees as the snow got higher than the white tubs. Ths year 2019 I put 1/4 by 1/4 wire mesh. So we will see if that worked.

Great tips^^^

From the color of the droppings it was meadow voles, mice would be black.

You can take some live twigs and graft from bottom to top across the gaps 4 or 5 spots to keep the spring flow going but the top has to be cut back

Good stuff! Yes the snow got deeper than my tubes this year. I will likely lose around 15 trees out of this "patch" of apple trees. I will need to check some of the other patches and see how they did. I do like the tin foil idea and may need to try that.

Yes. I learned the aluminum foil trick many years ago in silviculture. Coat the foil with a collar of "tanglefoot" and they won't be able to climb it.

Mice, moles, shrews, voles...….I can't tell the difference and was just generalizing. I think large amounts of DECON in the area are in order. Ia m sick over this. All the hours of planting, trimming, fertilizing and fencing to keep the deer away all for nothing.

beaver bait sticks now...Guaranteed Rodent Attractor.
Field tested.

really sorry for the loss.

That's a bummer, I feel your pain. My wife and I run a native plant nursery and overwinter our perrenials outside. Meadow voles are a constant battle, they can cause us thousands of dollars in damage each winter, they chew through plastic plug flats and eat the plant inside. Sweet plants are most attractive to them, I think apple bark would be pretty desirable.

Our most successful control methods have been: aggressive fall trapping to reduce numbers and working to reduce snow accumulation around our stock as they operate under the cover of snow. The most successful deterrent has been castor oil (from the bean, not beaver castor), and black/cayenne pepper. You can get bulk castor oil on Amazon. We haven't had good luck with the castor pellets available at many garden/hardware stores

I think in your case the hardware cloth or foil would be a pretty effective as long as the snow didn't get too deep.

you could try a bridge graft but that would be a long bridge.

Looks like shrews to me.

Bruce T shrews are insect eaters and sometimes predators of voles and mice.

did not that young trapper in your household get a 22 for all his effort last fall;?
clean up a shooting lane;
a little fresh clippings on the ground around the damage;
led Christmas lights in the tree;
Set up a picnic bench or shooting bench 20 yards away;
and let the outdoor education begin;

Remember in the lesson;It's not the wall of lead that gets them.

Feral cats do have their uses.

Keith

I must be mixed up between shrews and voles.

Probably the best you can do now is to cut them off and hopefully a sucker comes out of the stump.

I worry about this happening every winter.

If possible after whip grafting, your tree needs extreme pruning, it wont kill tree providing you can whip graft your tree.

the best thing you can do for your fruit trees is white paint latex paint , paint from lowest branch down to ground , nothing will eat the bark , my dad, and grandpa did this to every fruit tree, every summer I lost one tree this year the only one I didn't paint ,

You will have suckers come up from the ground. Choose one good one from the north side of the stump and graft onto it later.

Those drain sleeves are great areas for placing a mouse pacs in the fall into, for a little munches, and usually kept away from dogs if wired around shut.

I would use rodent bait stations and professional grade rat bait if I had your problem.

I guess over the years I have lost fruit trees and had bad luck about everyway a guy could.
First of all it is low where I live and frost gets the blossoms every now and again.
Had problems with the under the snow critters like Rob has.
Deer, o ya, both eating the branches and bucks rubbing on the trees.
One year it looked like I was gonna have a nice crop of both apples and pears and
whilst I was gone to Canada in late September fishing someone came and stole all the fruit.
Couple years ago the apples were so plentiful a tree split because of the weight of them and died.
I've had them just up and die for no apparent reason.
Some years they get blight and rust no matter how much I spray them.
Never have been able to keep more than 6 alive at any given time. lol

Zim

You can also cut screen wire. Put around tree and staple together. But that is not groundhog proof. Lost a peach tree last year to groundhog. No more Mr. nice guy this year.

I like using coni- bears on ground hogs.

I would not use the poison. Some states are testing foxes and finding that they are being killed by second hand poisoning from eating the dead mice or rodents, also birds of prey are being killed.

I've put 5 ft plastic tree tubes around my apple trees. mainly because of the deer.
But mice/voles got inside some of the tubes and made nests inside the tubes.
While inside they chewed the trees up.
It doesn't seem to have killed the trees yet.