The last of the long snow cover that we had has finally melted away.   I took a stroll through my yard and discovered (to my horror and shock) some extensive rabbit damage on many of my fruit trees - chewing on small ones, cutting them in half and completely girdling some larger ones.   I've never seen damage like this before and attribute it to the long cover of snow that we don't normally get. The only food supply was sticking out of the snow!   

Sorry to hear about what happened.  What makes you believe the damage was from rabbits?

I think rabbits will eat just about anything when hungry.
Good example was my nextdoor neighbor growing hungarian hot wax pepper had many eaten just before he was about to pick them a summer or two ago.

Question:  Have you ever smelled fresh fig scion?  It smells very much like figs, sweet and inviting.  If I were an animal, I'd want to eat it.

Those little bastard varmits/rodents started on my plum trees recently.

The evidence, aside from what I consider typical rabbit damage, were the piles of rabbit pellets everywhere there was damage.   I think that eliminated the regular rodents and squirrels from the list.   Everything else is hibernating.

Sorry to hear of your damage. It's amazing how mother nature can destroy things we've worked so hard to grow, and so quickly. Better put a hardware cloth ring around the base of your trees for protection. Just a suggestion, i'm sure you've already thought of a remedy. Good luck!

If hardware cloth is actually made of a cloth material the rabbits will chew right threw it.
Some seasons back i had that orange plastic fencing that you sometimes see around construction sites or in the hardware stores around my garden to keep my dogs from going into it which was high enough for them not to jump over the rabbits chewed right threw it i would use wire wrap and repair the hole and they proceeded to make a new hole elswhere. When i worked in the train yard as a switchman i observed a rabbit making a nest by removing the rocks ( yard ballast ) with his feet and mouth. Rabbits commonly chew thru tree seedling in the winter i have had this happen many seasons back when we had house built and planted many trees that first year.
If i had inground fig trees and rabbit problems i would have a fence made out of metal .
Anyways i no longer have rabbit problem as they use to dig right under our wooden fence as well , the new chanilink fence reaching down to the ground with a tight wire at bottom to hold taught fixed the rabbit problem to date, they eventually might try to dig under it but there happy so far with my neighbors garden which is easily accesible.

Ingevald
I understand your frustration. I go through it almost every year replacing newly planted trees chewed down by rabbits. In the beginning I was not sure until the pooh balls were recognized to be the signature of a jack rabbit. I used to plant 5-in-1 apple or pear or cherry and the next year it will be either left as 2-in-1 or 1-in-1 or totally pruned to the ground as Jon does to some of his fig plants. The worse were Nanking cherry plants probably with sweeter wood.
This year I tried landscaping cloth around the remaining plants but the winter snow pull it down so they are fully exposed now to the rabbits.
It used to be a lot more frustration before I started with figs. Now I know figs are safe in cold storage from rabbits, bud kills at -30C & other winter worries so there is something to look forward to during the year.

Ingevald,

For the time being, Get some garlic and peal the dry skin off and place about three or four pieces in a foam coffee cup, Poke a few hole so the air circulates.

In the spring time plant some Marigolds, Rabbits hate them.
If you pay close attention to your nose you will notice Marigolds smells close to skunk. I guess even fluffy can't stand Pepi Le pue.
In the fall save some seeds and sprinkle them on the ground the following spring.

We used to have a problem with rabbits but haven't had any issue with them for the past two or three years.

I still have a pet squirrel I'm trying to get taken care of and he's a big one!

Hi Rafed,
for the squirels its eaither a scatter gun a dog 24/7 on the lookout   or
http://www.mikewest.net/squirrel/recipes.html

Enjoy   ; )

Martin,

You know how when you are trying to look inside through the glass and it's bright outside. You put your forehead against the glass with your hands above your head so you can see better.

My pet squirrel does something almost like that from time to time.
I have double sliding glass doors in the back and he'll just come up to the glass and take along hard look.

Just can't bring myself to kill him. He needs to eat too.
I thought about trapping and moving him but he'll starve because he won't be able to find his food during the winter. Even though squirrels forget half the time where they buried their food.

I like that link you added.

Rafed
That will be a contest between the rabit's hunger vs. his dislike for the smell of garlic.
I will try it anyway starting tomorrow.

Hardware cloth should work well. Have you tried bridge grafting before? I did it on a peach tree that was totally girdled and the tree recovered nicely. This tree had at least an inch of stripped cambium all the way around. The bridge was pretty easy to do and after about a year the trees cambium has actually healed back together and the tree is almost the same size as my trees that were never damaged. The trunk looks a little ugly but aside from that you would never know the tree was damaged.

Akram,
You have nothing to lose. The only thing is I don't know how effective it will be in this cold temps.
But the Marigold does work ( In the summer of course ).

Thats very unfortunate. I better put some tubing to protect
the few fig trees I have outside.

I hear rabbit with a little garlic is quite tasty.

Paully the corugated tubing for water draining is cheap at hd and Menards.

Rafed very nice setup , mine a 12g with an accu choke i can adjust pattern from full to modified, its a semi automatic bought new in 1976 at sears an ole ted williams model but its like new still .  ; )

Thanks Martin for the source. Will install tubing tomorrow. No rabbits here but field mice & slough rats. I have seen some by the slough about 400+ meters away while fishing for cutthroat trout. Big ones. Now, I am sure glad both my neighbour cats comes over to my garden to poopy, especially on the vege garden patch.

Jon,When I am down in SD next time I will bring a rabbit from
the supermarket and you can fired up the BBQ. I can then testify with
pic's & report back to F4F friends that what you heard is indeed tasty.
We can used fresh figs as stuffings. LOL

I had the most awful tasting rabbit when I was living in down under. It was a
fresh kill on a hunting trip. We put it over the fire anticipating a good meal.
None of us(4) ate more than a mouthful.

Thanks for all of your comments and support.    I actually appreciated the suggestions as well.    Have some time to "cool down" after the initial outrage, I have thought about some options.    The bridge graft might be possible despite the fact that the varmints girdled a wide area on a five year old pear that was close to making fruit.   That was the most devastating damage.    The other option that I found in my grafting book is something called an inarching graft.    I have successfully grafted several fruit trees and might attempt this method to save the tree.   

You might even get some suckers coming up from below the damage on some of your trees. If that happens it is easy to use those shoots to make the bridges.

Another thing I noticed with my AU Rosa plum trees that got hit this year was, they only attacked the stalk ABOVE the rootstock graft. 

I slapped some black corrugated tubing around the trunk after splitting.  Haven't seen anything since.  They're not attacking my in-ground fig tree, which is ~3yrs.  They're also not attacking the two dead Montmorency cherry trees I have, either.

Ingevald, I feel for you.  Can't tell you how many persimmon and cherrry trees the varmints have done in here when we have a lot of snow.  The rabbits start it and the mice finish is off.  The field mice burrow under the snow (and mulch) where you can't see them.  If the damage is below the snow line, I would be suspicious.

I would recommend that you use 1/4" rather than 1/2" just in case the field mice are also involved.  Your mention of the damage to the discarded fig branches made me wonder.  It is possible that the rabbits hung out there and tried a bit, but...Mice will chew ANYTHING for bedding.  In my area, they have chewed bars of soap, clothing, books, and hundreds of feed of plastic insulation from the  electrical wiring in my house.   It is a bloody miracle that the whole place didn't burn down.  When I rewired the house I put hardware cloth inside all of the walls...and got cats.

One more suggestion about the hardware cloth.  I would make sure there is no gap at the top or the bottom where mice could squeeze in.  I swear that they have no bones.

Hardware cloth is YOUR friend.  That and a shotgun...and dogs...and cats (who also like bunnies and squirrels)...and poison...and a flamethrower...and punji...and anything else lethal you can think of.

Wow Jenia, perfect candidate to deal with taliban criters. I
better go & checked my plants in the garage covered with
a blanket in the event these criters thinks its the best place
to have a snack & nap.

Jenia,

You forgot to add a roller pin and a frying pan, Those two can be just as lethal.