Last winter while dormant in my garage I lost 6 young figs due to ring girdling low on the trunk.I'm in the NE near Woodstock,NY. Local garden buff said it was prob. due to mice or other small guy. Traps are the logical way to go, I guess, any other suggestions? "They" didn't seem to bother the larger, older trees. Thanks, Gardendowser

Mice and rodents don't like the smell of mint. Many repellents contain mint oil. I'd do a mix of traps and some kind of repellent containing mint.

This week and before my trees go dormant, I already have several damaged trees. Nothing was happening all summer long. Need to add rat poison before I lose any more trees.

What I do with my outdoor trees prior to wrappng them is use aluminum foil around the bottom foot or so. Its easy to just crumple it around trunks/branches and mice won't chew it. works 100% for me.

I had a real big issue in my greenhouse one year with mice chewing and started this application then and it stopped the damage after that.
Tyler

Do you keep the aluminum during the hit summer days too?

If that happens try to root as cuttings all the wood that still has bark.

I'm trying an air layer on a couple before it's too late. Hope it could still work with all the trees going dormant soon.

Hi,
Use pepper and hot pepper paste around your trees. Put that in a plate or in a shallow glass. You could dispose garlic too .
You could store your pots on bricks - say 3 bricks in height. It won't completely stop them as they can climb, but at least they won't hide in between the pots.
Keep the area clean. Remove all leaves that fell in the storage area.

But, you don't have the choice but trap and/or bait to get rid of the last stubborn ones.

Thanks all, for the input. Gardendowser

just had this happen to me today, went out to garage they had nibled my top buds and killed a few branches Im sure!! This means war!!!

Since most mice are vegetarian in first line you could try using blood meal as a repellent. Add some water to make some smoothy of it and get it onto the bark. Works for me against rabbits and dear as long as they find something different to eat.

Lay some sticky pads around the base of the tree. Problem solved.