I was hoping someone out there has had experience fighting a porcupine and won!!! We have one that has begun to attack our fruit trees again. We have wrapped the trunks with tin (it chewed up the trunk of one of the 5 year old peach trees) and that darn thing must be big b/c it can still get in the trees. We have asked around and no one seems to have an answer - all they say is good luck and get a gun. Well, we have spent several nights out in the orchard and have not seen the darn thing. So, I am wondering if there is bait I can use for a live trap that will draw it in? I need to do something b/c I can not afford to lose the crop or the trees!! HELP!!!!
Any ideas - please!!
Thank you,
Dana
Porcupine vs Orchard - Porcupine in the LEAD!! HELP!!
I had no idea porcupines could be found this far south. I found some links for you on porcupine control. You may also wish to contact your local cooperative agent to see what their recommendations are. We have a huge coyote population in our country and my DH has spent countless nights out looking for them to no avail. If an animal has a good sense of smell, I doubt it will come out to forage if it smells a human. Your best bet is probably bait and a trap.
When I looked up porcupine control, I ran across several sites that sold sprays of different sorts to keep porcupines away. The problem with those is the odor fades so quickly and can be very expensive over time. Here's a link to your county cooperative office:
http://gillespie-tx.tamu.edu/
See what they have to say.
Meanwhile , here are some links that might be helpful:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3470
http://www.extension.org/faq/1001
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/archive/index.php/t-3375.html
http://forum.sullivansline.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000341
Are you near water....lake or creek? You may have a nutrea chopping down trees. They look liike a giant RAT! We have them at Lake LBJ.
Thank you for the info and I will research. We use to not have that many porcupines, but in the past - I would say - 5 years, their numbers have jumped. I think it is b/c they are following the creek and then spread out and some of the ones I have seen around here are huge! There was one on the highway right in front of our drive that took up over half of one lane - hate to hit that thing with a car! We do have nutres around us, but I have not seen one up here near the orchard. The creek is about .5 miles away and down a steep hill. You never know though - one may have taken up residence. We have killed several porcupines - so we figured it was that again. We are just having a hard time chasing this one down. I do not know what happened, but this spring we have killed at least 15 snakes (trying to get to our chickens), several coons and possums - this has been in about a 2 week time period. Also, these snakes are not small - the shortest one was 5 ft. All of a sudden we are just over run with pests. Have no clue what changed this year.
Thanks Dana
Well, I wish you success in tracking this problem down. I can sympathize with you on the pest porblem. We had 6" of rain mid-April after an exceptional drought and it seemed to bring out every critter in the area.