What are their favorites? In what order do they prefer fruit? Just want to be prepared, and maybe, IDK, plant something away from my other trees. I have well trod bear trails above and below me.
They don’t bother me so far, I’ve kept my trash inside and the stinky stuff in the freezer. Have no compost pile as of yet. They forage in some of my neighbor’s trash and animal feed bags instead. Eat their chickens. Have broken into several homes around me. Once my trees bear enough fruit they’ll be here. I plan on having plenty of cherries, peaches, pears, apricots. My dog is fairly courageous (and does have some common sense) but he’s only one dog.
EDIT; Just wondering what they prefer. I have an electric fence to set up for one section and plan on bear “unwelcome” matts for others.
They are already here. One beds down below my house, and they frequently check out my property from a short distance - so, it’s not like I’d be attracting them to here.
So far what I’ve found that keeps both the bears and the deer out of my main garden is a 10 foot wire fence with an additional overlay of torn cheap flimsy black bird netting. The stuff that sticks to your feet when you step in it. Torn in 2 - 4 ft wide 4 ft long strips so it moves with the wind etc. They can’t see it so they can’t understand it and it freaks all of them out big time. YMMV.
Bears like any fruit especially sweet ones. Planting something for them away from your orchard isn’t going to help. That will just be an appetizer before they visit your trees and tear them up getting at the fruit. You need a bear proof fence.
In my experience, their favorite fruit is fruit that is ripe. I have not noticed that they have a preference of one over another. They seem to be very opportunistic, I would imagine that ripe or fermenting fruit on the ground will bring them in. They have excellent noses, the smell of ripening fruit is likely to be attractive to them.
Bear discovered my paw paws two years ago and as soon as they are ripe the fruit disappears leaving broken branches behind. They also completely tore apart my Dolgo crabapple. I have been told that bear have a good memory and will continue to visit a known source of food. People that have bees in our area use electric fences to keep bear away, I believe they have success.
bears will absolutely destroy your trees and bushes to get your fruit. i dont know of anything you could build to keep them out other than shooting them which is what farmers do here. you can get a permit from a game warden to dispatch them once you show them the damage done. many times its too little, too late.
The only way beekeepers keep bears out of their hives here is with 3 or 4 strands of electric fencing. Most are powered by solar fence chargers.
I have heard of people placing sheets of plywood with 2”-3” nails sticking out around fruit tree drip lines. Some success is reported. Major PITA to deal with when you want to pick the fruit though.
Nothing is keeping a bear from food when they really want it besides a well placed bullet.
cant even do that here in Maine. you have to show the warden the damage 1st. then he issues a nusiance permit.. then you can dispatch. friends of ours were losing thier ducks to a lynx but because the lynx are protected, they told them there was nothing they could do. i told them just to pepper him in the backend with some light steel birdshot,.from a distance.. that did the trick and it didnt come back.
As far as keeping deer and bear from finding your orchard I found nothing better than an electric fence with a couple big guard dogs that live inside. It really seems to work the best. As a bonus they sometimes kill voles for pleasure. In our part of Michigan, using hounds to hunt bears is legal. I think it helps keep the bears afraid of dogs and people.
its legal here in Maine also. my brothers a Maine guide and he gets a few crews from P.A and WV that come up to run their dogs. my brother goes in with them once the dogs have one treed. hes shown me some pretty wild nail bitting vids when that sucker decides to come down the tree.
I lived on the west coast and the bears there were much more aggressive, present, and destructive. The only way to keep them out would be a very heavy duty fence and even then, if they really wanted in, they’d get in.
I’m in Virginia now and sometimes the bears will break trees, but they’re so, so much smaller and less destructive.
I’m afraid to grow paw paws. I’ve read that they contain a neurotoxin IF you eat far too many of them. Which is fine for humans, they can restrain themselves, but I’m not liking the thought of brain damaged bears roaming around. Lol for reals..
It’s probably too late for that stand of paw paws because yes, they get obsessive with coming back to the same places. But if you start a new stand and double fence it- see my edit above, you might have luck. Maybe.
Exactly with spikes. This one linked is for raccoons. You’d need to keep scaffolding branches 6 ft off the grounds with spiked collar but it can be done.
And bears love persimmons. Prok persimmon is self fertile, virtually no maintenance, prolific and it’s leaves are awesome in the fall. All around winner.
Bears can still jump and rip down limbs so electric fencing is the only thing that works for sure, from what I understand.
LOL, Oh yeah! that is a really cool medieval torture looking thing. I could maybe have a welder make something heavy duty. Or just use really sharp stiff sheet metal.
Check what I use now above in my EDIT.
For some reason I have not seen any sign of raccoons whatsoever. Which is really weird. I think the mountain lions might have eaten them all.
I’m on the west coast but they hunt (probably poach and SSS) in my neighborhood, so the bears are a little shy. They only break in when people are gone for a few days.
There’s a neighborhood 10 miles away where they don’t hunt and the bears are brazen.
Thanks. I’ll have both to use later. The trees are spread way apart- weird lot.They also freak out about flimsey bird netting because they can’t see it. My neighborhood bears are a bit shy when people are home - there’s hunting here.
