Thanks. I’ll have one 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.
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Thanks. I’ll have one to use later.
They’re hunted here so they’re not too brazen. Or at least SSS I think.. I did shoot towards either a bear or a cougar one night last year, the dogs were going nuts, and haven’t had a bear in my yard since then. But they’re definitely here.
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Thanks
I could have both.
Bogovich, I think I see a live oak in your profile. Are you in California? Will the Prok persimmon survive Ca summers without water once established? We get rains late in the spring here in NorCal.
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Sweeter, lower the acid the better for them- jus like most wildlife and many people. The variety they’ve done the most damage to on orchards I manage is Korean Giant Asian pear, but the sample size isn’t huge. They have also done a lot of damage to saucer peaches and J. plums. Apples have strong wood, so that helps protect them.
In NY the state has decided not to pay for bear removal in more or less suburban neighborhoods and the results are becoming very stressful for beekeepers, bird watchers, and, most importantly, fruit growers. I’m thinking about buying a shell loader for my 20 gage shotgun- I wouldn’t want to rely on one shell. But then the issue would become, how to dispose of a 400 pound animal- I sold my commercial wood dhipper.
A few loads of buck shot from a 20 gauge may kill a bear but not quick enough to stop it from killing you first. You would need to be within 35 yards for such a load to do any damage. A 3” slug or sabot would be required for relatively quick lethality and I’ d much prefer a 12 gauge for bear. You would still need to be quite close.
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I help hide it in my deep freezer.
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Being a glass half full kinda guy and giving me a smile is that the bear will go off with a belly full of seeds so they are agents of seed dispersal! Maybe paw paw thickets will poop up all over the area in the coming decades! Hurricanes can blow some Zebra Swallowtail up to Vermont and they will find paw paws to lay their eggs on. Here is a photo of who I believe is the culprit on our lawn.
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I’ll agree that an occasional bear passing through and doing some damage to a tree or two can simply be ignored. Having enough bears around to have multiple trails (per the OP) is another deal entirely IMO.
In my area, bear kill tags can be bought over the counter (September season I believe) so their numbers are kept in check. Also, any farmer experiencing bear damage isn’t screwing around with a permit. They eliminate the problem and get rid of the evidence quickly. There’s always somewhere to dig a hole with an enloader.
In areas where legal kill permits are limited, bears can be very problematic. If living in such an area, you just learn to live with the damage they do.
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I had a bear climb one of my big pear trees in the middle of the night once and it violently shook the tree for 5-10 minutes. You could hear the fruit hitting the ground. Every once in awhile it would stop to rest and you could hear it panting for air. It was absolutely wild to listen to out the window at 2am.
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Very good to know, thank you. I have a very small Korean Giant Asian pear that won’t be ready to plant in the ground for a couple years. Also, I don’t like really sweet fruits without acid. I got the pears to grow for neighbors and the local food bank. Maybe I’ll get an extra and a really sweet peach or 2. I’m growing out root stock now. I could build a barrier that lets fruit hang low.
Check out what I use for my main garden. YMMV. The ones in my neighborhood are shy around humans. They only break in when no one is around for several days.I did find one responded very well to a gun shot in it’s general direction. It was either a bear or a cougar, my dog was going nuts, but either way the bears were put on notice and haven’t actually entered my yard since, that I can tell.
You can eat bear. If it hasn’t been eating garbage it tastes really good. Greasy like a good burger. You might find someone else into it if you’re not. Even for dog food.. No sense in wasting 100 - 200 lbs of meat.
Oh, that’s a bold bear! I take it no one hunts in your neighborhood.
Yeah, I don’t hate the bears either. I like them. Just don’t want too much damage.
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Also, any farmer experiencing bear damage isn’t screwing around with a permit. They eliminate the problem and get rid of the evidence quickly.
That seems to happen in my neighborhood, except I think people eat them. There’s a female with cubs off and on here and at least one large male. Plus the teens before they disperse. Just a normal everyday bear habitat. They just make very heavy trails. They’re not very bold but will break down a chicken coop when no one is home for several days. I live up against some very large parcels. I don’t want to kill the female who hangs around - she is pretty well behaved. If she’s gone a real asshole bear might move in.
About 10 to 15 miles away is a neighborhood where they do not hunt. Those bears are more problematic.
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My friend and her room mate go out and play their trumpets at them when they get into the apple trees near the house. They run off. Most will run off if you yell at them.
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I was just shooting BS. I’m feeling pissed because bear pressure has been rising a great deal in the last 4 years in my region. I sill stick to using a nail gun to shoot nails through plywood and place boards under trees with ripe fruit.
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Yep, EliindaUP! You got the right idea. Two dogs medium to large size. Always need two together. When any four legged predators have to deal with two or more dogs at the same time they do the smart thing and retreat…very quickly.
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The bear than climbed our 6’ welded wire fence to get into the vegetable garden seem to have enjoyed the Rubinette apples because h cleaned them out ignoring the unripe Goldrush.
It all worked out because they had bitter pit or something pretty bad, and the bear was polite, the tree was pretty much unharmed and the fence just needed to be bent back into position.
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Check bee-keepers’ sites online. Most will list specs for electric fences that keep bears away from their hives, which I would guess are even more attractive to bears than fruit.
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