The apple tree was eaten by mice - what to do, how to save it

Content

1 Damage caused by rodents
2 How can you save a tree?
3 Protecting trees from rodents
4 Conclusion

The struggle of gardeners with various pests does not end with the onset of cold weather - it is the turn of field mice. If the winged destroyers of fruits and leaves fall asleep in winter, then rodents, on the contrary, become more active, because in their natural habitat (in forests and fields) it becomes cold and hungry. Voles approach human habitation in search of food; one of the most delicious “treats” for these animals is the bark of young apple trees. Although damage to trunks by mouse teeth is not as critical as the damage caused by larger rodents, it is better to prevent these troubles than to deal with their consequences.

This article will tell you what to do if the bark of apple trees has been chewed by mice. Here you can also find information on how to protect young trees and what methods of rodent control are best to use.

Damage caused by rodents

Mice, hares and wild rabbits can completely destroy an orchard. The fact is that stone fruit and seed trees are a favorite treat for rodents. By the way, mice damage trees much less than hares and other rodents.

The small teeth of field mice are able to gnaw through only the top layer of the apple tree - the bark.Often the cambium remains intact, which allows the tree to quickly regenerate and continue bearing fruit.

Attention! Cambium is a layer of wood located between the bark and the core, and is responsible for nutrition and sap flow.

Mice are most active in gardens at the end of winter - beginning of spring. It is by this time that rodent supplies usually run out, and there is absolutely no food left for them in the fields and forests.

If there is snow on the site, mice will damage the part of the trunk that is under the snow. Therefore, the gardener may not immediately notice that the bark of the apple trees has been eaten by mice; usually, traces of the presence of rodents are discovered in the spring, when the snow melts. The most important thing in this case is not to waste time and immediately begin resuscitation of the apple tree.

Important! Only severe, especially circular, bark eating on apple trees can lead to the death of the tree. In other cases, you can try to save the plant.

Mice gnaw not only the bark and trunks of young apple trees; these animals can even destroy the roots of an old tree. If in the spring an apple tree has fallen on its side, and its trunk easily turns in the ground, it means that most of the roots are damaged - the tree will certainly die, since it does not receive nutrition. Such plants will have to be uprooted - it is impossible to save apple trees with more than 80% damage to the roots.

How can you save a tree?

If mice have chewed the bark of apple trees, the most important thing is not to waste time and begin saving the tree immediately. As soon as the snow melts, the gardener should walk around the site and inspect all the fruit plants. Depending on how much the mice have chewed the bark of the apple trees, a method of saving and treating the tree is chosen.

Therapeutic bandages

Apple trees that are not very badly nibbled by mice can be treated with bandages.This will only help if the problem was detected in time and the bark has not yet begun to dry out. The most important thing is that the cambium and pith are not damaged.

Advice! Therapeutic dressings can only restore those apple trees that have superficial, non-ring damage to the bark.

There are many ways to treat with bandages. Here are the most common and effective of them:

The place where the mice have gnawed the bark of the apple tree is smeared with a thick layer of ointment. "Heteroauxin" Apply garden varnish on top and bandage the trunk with gauze or clean natural cloth. The top of the bandage should be covered with polyethylene to prevent infection and moisture from getting into the wound.
Can be cooked linden decoction. To do this, take a pack of dried linden (200 grams) and fill it with a liter of water. This mixture is boiled covered for 30 minutes. The broth should be cooled and strained through cheesecloth. Wounds caused by the teeth of mice are thoroughly soaked in pure linden decoction. After this, the trunk of the apple tree is bandaged with cloth and film, leaving the bandage on all summer.
Clay chatter - one of the most ancient methods of treating apple trees after mouse attacks. Six parts of clay should be dissolved in water and mixed with four parts of cow dung. The mass should be thick. A thick layer of it (about three centimeters) is applied to the damaged apple tree trunk, then the tree is wrapped with natural fabric. Another layer of clay is applied on top of the fabric and the tree is left in this form not throughout the warm season. You don’t have to take off this bandage for the winter: the clay and fabric easily tear and decompose, without leaving any constrictions on the growing apple tree. Already next spring, new bark should grow on the trunk.
If the gardener does not have the ingredients or time to prepare mash, you can use a ready-made composition "RanNet". This special bactericidal putty promotes rapid healing of any wounds on fruit trees. It is applied with a brush to a clean trunk. After drying, the product leaves a durable film that will not crack or allow moisture to pass through.
The wound on the bark caused by mice will heal quickly after treatment copper sulfate. A three percent solution is suitable for this. The trunk of the apple tree is impregnated with it, when the product dries, the tree is wrapped in black polyethylene. Polyethylene will protect the wounds from water and light, and by the end of the season the bandage can be removed.

Attention! If a gardener notices a trunk eaten by mice in the winter, he urgently needs to insulate the tree. To do this, it is wrapped with film and agrofibre. When it gets warmer, this protection is removed and radical measures are taken.

Grafting the wound

In more complex cases, when the tree’s nutrition is disrupted, bridge grafting is used. If mice have eaten not only the bark, but also the cambium, it will be more difficult to save the apple tree, but it’s worth a try.

To graft an apple tree with a bridge, you need to do this:

as soon as the snow melts, the wound caused by the mice is cleaned to clean wood;
after this, the trunk is treated with a one percent solution of copper sulfate;
cut several last year's young shoots from the tree and cut them into equal sections, the length of which should be 5 cm greater than the vertical dimensions of the wound;
The cuttings are cut at an acute angle from both ends;
in the areas of the apple tree bark located above and below the wound, cuts are made in the shape of the letter “T”;
Prepared cuttings are inserted into these cuts.

Advice! For a young apple tree, severely damaged by mice, two bridge shoots are enough; for an older tree, you need to take at least five cuttings.

The junction (grafting) is lubricated with garden varnish and rewound with polyethylene.

The essence of this method of resuscitating an apple tree after the action of mice is that the shoots will take root in the bark and begin to nourish the tree, playing the role of damaged cambium. Over the years, the bridge shoots will become thicker and eventually turn into a full-fledged trunk for the apple tree.

Engraftment of the cortex

This method of healing wounds left by mice is quite complicated - only experienced gardeners can implement it. The method of grafting bark onto a bare area is especially effective, when mice gnaw at the trunk in a circle, without leaving a single centimeter of covering on the tree ring.

To make this method a reality, you need to find a donor apple tree or cut the bark from a thick branch of the same tree. The bark for transplantation is cut off very carefully using a sharp knife. The dimensions of the “patch” should be 5 cm larger on each side than the wound left by the mice.

The bark is applied to the gnawed trunk and wrapped with electrical tape. In order for the apple tree to recover, it needs to be watered and fed - to provide complete care. With the onset of winter, the tape is removed.

Important! Rarely do apple trees with severely damaged bark recover completely. The trees grow more slowly, the volume of fruiting decreases - it often turns out that the mice literally ate the apple tree.

Cutting the trunk for reverse growth

If mice have severely damaged the trunk of an apple tree, at least part of the tree can only be saved in a drastic way - by cutting down the trunk above the lower bud. They use the method even before the sap flow begins: this is very important!

To prevent the stump from germinating, it is generously lubricated with garden varnish. If the roots of the apple tree were healthy and strong, dense growth will come from them in the spring. From this growth the gardener can choose a trunk for a new tree.

Attention! Cutting the trunk to reverse growth will only help apple trees that are more than five years old. Young seedlings do not yet have a strong root system; they cannot be saved after damage by mice.

Protecting trees from rodents

It is difficult to revive apple trees after their trunks have been eaten by mice; moreover, the gardener must understand that after the “treatment” the tree will never be as prolific as before.

That's why The owner of an orchard should direct all his efforts to preventive measures - protecting apple trees from mice and other rodents.

Protecting apple trees from mice primarily involves cleaning the garden in the fall:

all branches, grass and other plant debris must be collected and taken outside the site;
fallen leaves should be burned or dumped into a compost bin.

Protective measures may include the following:

Whitewashing apple tree trunks. The trunk and skeletal branches are coated with garden paint to a height of about 150 cm (this is exactly the height that hares reach when standing on their hind legs).
Mice can't stand the smell copper sulfate. You can spray the crowns of apple trees and the soil around them with a solution prepared at the rate of 100 grams of vitriol per 10 liters of water. For a young apple tree, two liters of a protective agent is enough; an adult tree needs at least a bucket of solution for complete treatment. The treatment is carried out in dry weather, when the leaves have completely fallen off and are removed from the garden.
As soon as the frosts begin, you can treat the apple trees Bordeaux mixture – Mice can’t tolerate it either.A one percent solution will not only repel mice, it will destroy insects overwintering in the bark and roots of apple trees. The amount of product should be the same as in the previous paragraph.
A mixture of naphthalene and fish oil - not the best treat for mice. In a ratio of 1:8, these two components are combined and the lower branches and trunk are coated. You can lay out a cloth soaked in mothballs around the apple tree. After each rain or snowfall, repeat the treatment!
Sanlizol Mice and hares don't like it either. You can soak sawdust in this product and scatter it around the trunk of the apple tree. Or you can mix Sanlizol with clay and coat the lower part of the tree.
Apple tree seedlings protect spruce branches. The branches are tied to the trunk, pointing their needles down, trying to cover the root collar.
The smell of elderberry disgusting for mice. Twigs with this berry can be placed in the garden.
So that mice cannot make moves in the snow, snow is regularly trampled down. This will allow an ice crust to form and compact the snow mass.
A more radical way - fencing apple trees with chain-link mesh. The mesh is buried half a meter into the ground, the height of the above-ground fencing should be at least one and a half meters.

Advice! The meshes of the chain-link should be no more than 10-15 mm. If the diameter of the protective fence is around 70 cm, you don’t have to remove the cover - the apple tree will be able to develop normally.

Conclusion

Mice often gnaw the trunk of an apple tree, exposing the core of the tree, disrupting metabolic processes and nutrition. Infections and moisture can penetrate through wounds, as a result of which fungal diseases develop - the tree becomes weak, often gets sick, bears fruit poorly, and stops developing.

To protect an apple tree from mice, you need to use fences, non-woven material, ultrasound, baits and products whose odor is unpleasant to rodents. You can try to cure already damaged trees, choosing a method depending on the depth and area of the wound.