what is all the debris under hemlock trees this winter?

Blue Sky · February 22, 2011, 10:06:01 PM

Here in western Mass. this winter, with 30" of snow in the woods, I have noticed large amounts of small(2-5") ends of Canadian Hemlock pieces scattered over the snow. Looks like they have been cut off. No sign of adelgid(although it is infiltrating our area at present). Could it be hungry squirrels? And it is not on every tree.

ahlkey · February 23, 2011, 08:51:56 AM

It could be Porcupines? I have problems with them every year with my Hemlock trees and they will leave a big mess, especially when you have heavy snow cover.

SwampDonkey · February 23, 2011, 04:46:40 PM

Squirrels cutting cones and could be porkies stripping branch tips and foliage and bark. Also wind will break tips to. My yard is full of spruce tips broken in wind and cone cutting I suspect as well. They cut my red pine to, the red squirrels, with about an 8 inch long branch they later nip off. If there is any old hollow trees, trash piles, brush piles around the porkies will den in them.

isawlogs · February 23, 2011, 05:58:37 PM

Here also alot of the tips where broken off from snow load and cold. Helmlock has very brittle branches they break easy with all the snow we had and the cold that followed , I would not but breakage out of the equation!

SwampDonkey · February 23, 2011, 06:20:04 PM

Yup that to happens here.

Holmes · February 24, 2011, 11:56:38 AM

We have a porcupine in the hemlocks around the house. Seen it so much my wife named it Pokey. It climbs out to the end of the branches and gnaws the softer wood off. A few tears ago we had one eating the branches off an apple tree. Holmes

g_man · February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM

When my wife and I were building our house, once we had the exterior framing done we lived in the basement for about 3 years while we finished. At night we would wake up and hear the porkies chewing on the plywood sheathing. I'd run out in my skivies with a 20 gauge and a flash light tucked under my arm and blast away. Got quite a few. I still kill them every chance I get. They do alot of damage to buildings and trees. They are the only creature that I treat that way.

Shotgun · February 25, 2011, 07:35:10 PM

Quote from: g_man on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
When my wife and I were building our house, once we had the exterior framing done we lived in the basement for about 3 years while we finished. At night we would wake up and hear the porkies chewing on the plywood sheathing. I'd run out in my skivies with a 20 gauge and a flash light tucked under my arm and blast away. Got quite a few. I still kill them every chance I get. They do alot of damage to buildings and trees. They are the only creature that I treat that way.

TOGPIADP

Can you figure this one out? It's my motto.

Norm

SwampDonkey · February 25, 2011, 07:42:39 PM

The only good porky is a dead porky. ;D

I worked one summer with a fella that would run them over, if the first pass didn't do it, it was full reverse. Now I couldn't do that to an animal myself. Shoot it, fine. I have one once in awhile in the back yard, they strip the tops of any tree they climb. Darn things. :-\

Used to set snares for coyote and coon, the porkies would get into a lot of them and they would destroy a snare.

ahlkey · February 25, 2011, 08:55:36 PM

Porkies do so much damage it hard to put up with them. The last straw was when they started to chew on my cabin --- then I had to do something. I have taken out three so far but they still do damage to the sheds and will even strip young hard maple from the top down. Every year they attack the Hemlock during the winter and if you look for them they are pretty easy to see in the trees. Other times of the year they are not so easy to locate.

Shotgun · February 25, 2011, 08:58:37 PM

Right on, Bill. I've had them chew on my camp siding too. They do a lot of damage in the woods. Ask any northern forester or logger.

Norm

g_man · February 25, 2011, 09:39:42 PM

I have had them chew tires, brake lines, fuel lines, and heater hoses too. I can almost see the tires because of the road salt on them, but I don't understand why they would go after the other stuff. Maybe it just tastes better than bark.

Blue Sky · February 26, 2011, 10:59:04 PM

We do not have porkies here. Our dogs chase anything that comes into our domain, except porkies. Except one dog, an Irish setter that never got the fact that chasing porkies results in face full of quills. I must have taken that dog to the vet 6 times before it died. I heard that wolverines were imported into this country to kill porkies. Is this true?

celliott · February 26, 2011, 11:28:35 PM

Quote from: Blue Sky on February 26, 2011, 10:59:04 PM
I heard that wolverines were imported into this country to kill porkies. Is this true?

I believe fisher cats were introduced to Vermont because they will prey on porcupines.
I shoot them too, whenever I see them in the woods. Destructive creatures.

Phorester · February 27, 2011, 08:34:47 AM

Quote from: g_man on February 25, 2011, 07:25:54 PM
When my wife and I were building our house, once we had the exterior framing done we lived in the basement for about 3 years while we finished. At night we would wake up and hear the porkies chewing on the plywood sheathing. I'd run out in my skivies with a 20 gauge and a flash light tucked under my arm and blast away. Got quite a few. I still kill them every chance I get. They do alot of damage to buildings and trees. They are the only creature that I treat that way.

Be careful G MAN. This reminds me of the story of the farmer who had a fox raid his hen house every so often. One hot summer night (before air conditioning) when he was sleeping naked and with the windows open he heard a commotion in the hen house. He got up, grabbed his shotgun, and ran naked to the hen house. He was slowly opening the hen house door, when at that moment his hound dog came up and stuck his cold wet nose against the farmer's naked butt. He let go with both barrels of the shotgun, wiping out most of his chickens and scaring the rest into never laying eggs again.

SwampDonkey · February 27, 2011, 10:49:44 AM

R0LFLMA0 :D :D :D

SwampDonkey · February 27, 2011, 10:53:47 AM

Fishers are native here in the Maritimes, they are in the weasel family. I can't think they were imported, unless your saying they were exterminated in that area and they decided fisher had a purpose, so they brought them back. ;) Example of man mess'n with nature and not realizing the consequences. Dummys are always confusing them for black cougars up here. And they aren't even all that big, but from a distance something black moving appears big to some, especially those with a little buzz on. ;)

Ron Scott · February 27, 2011, 01:53:42 PM

Fishers were reintroduced here in the U.P. on the Ottawa National Forest back in the late 1960's to control the porcupines in the high quality hardwood stands of the western U.P.

SwampDonkey · February 27, 2011, 05:54:16 PM

Saw one this fall coming home from work on the Sisson Brook. Have not seen them too often. But used to see one once in awhile on the brook below home, the stream made it's way down through a stand of huge white spruce. The trees have mostly been cut about 25 years ago. They were also quite tall, like pine.