Over the last several months there have been quite a few places up in the tree where the bark has been chewed on one of my apple trees. It is in town, so limits the number of animal options. It is places of healthy bark, not going after bugs. Plus most were done over winter, but some since. Some are little bites and some chewed away larger patches., like the size of a quarter and one the size of a dollar. DO they like the taste of copper or hort oil?
could be voles. they like bark of young trees in the winter. we have a lot of predators here but in the winter they have free reign under the snow. lost 6 nanking cherries 3 winters ago. they chewed them so bad , they didn’t even resprout! i put block poison out in pieces of pvc pipe in the fall around my plants and trees. so far 3 winters have passed with no more damage. hardware cloth around them helps too but when the snows deep the buggers climb the wire and chew higher up on the tree!
I edited to clarify, this is up in the tree
Yes, during Winter months if the temp is too cold and no other food source available, the squirrel will strip the tree barks for food. I have seen many trees with stripped barks along the road to work when We had a cold Winter.