{"id":4934,"date":"2017-11-27T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T17:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=4934"},"modified":"2017-11-27T10:14:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T15:14:50","slug":"protect-young-trees-and-shrubs-from-voles-rabbits-and-other-critters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2017\/11\/27\/protect-young-trees-and-shrubs-from-voles-rabbits-and-other-critters\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect Young Trees and Shrubs From Voles, Rabbits And Other Critters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10236\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_8750-e1511735179769.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10236\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10236\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_8750-e1511735179769-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_8750-e1511735179769-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_8750-e1511735179769-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10236\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young deciduous azalea protected by hardware cloth<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Rabbits, chipmunks, and voles (field mice) need a home for the winter.\u00a0They often choose to nestle up near newly planted trees and shrubs and gnaw\u00a0 on their sweet sapwood, girdling the trunk and essentially killing the tree. Fruit-bearing plants often damaged by\u00a0critters\u00a0over their first 1-2\u00a0winters include: apple, pear, peach, redbud, blueberry, and cane fruits. Young landscape plants such as crabapple, serviceberry, rose, and azalea may also be damaged.\u00a0Critters may also nibble off the flower buds of spring blooming shrubs.<\/p>\n<p>Deter rabbits by\u00a0loosely wrapping chicken wire around desirable plants. Coil several strands so\u00a0critters can\u2019t nibble through the wire. Prior to the start of winter,\u00a0clear away all weedy\u00a0brush and debris where\u00a0they may nest\u00a0or hide. Pull away all mulch from young newly planted (1-2 year old planted) fruit trees.<\/p>\n<p>The fencing or mechanical barrier\u00a0should stand 24 to 36 inches\u00a0high to deter\u00a0rabbits\u00a0from climbing over after a heavy snow.\u00a0Bury the bottom\u00a02-3\u00a0inches below the ground\u00a0to firmly anchor fencing or other mechanical barrier\u00a0to prevent rabbits from crawling under. Tree wraps\u00a0made from kraft paper or\u00a0spiral tree guards can protect tree trunks from critter feeding and also to insulate cold sensitive species against sunscald and freeze\u00a0damage. Tree guards and wraps should be removed in the early days of spring.<\/p>\n<p>Traps and repellents are other management tools. Repellents\u00a0should be applied multiple times over the fall &#8211; winter period.<\/p>\n<div id=\"outer-wrapper\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbits, chipmunks, and voles (field mice) need a home for the winter.\u00a0They often choose to nestle up near newly planted trees and shrubs and gnaw\u00a0 on their sweet sapwood, girdling the trunk and essentially killing the tree. Fruit-bearing plants often damaged by\u00a0critters\u00a0over their first 1-2\u00a0winters include: apple, pear, peach, redbud, blueberry, and cane fruits. Young [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[693,1108,711,709,938,681,365,1418,1115,604,1386,1383,853,551,833,953,826,606,843,601,729,933,825,703,1031,630,705,819,162,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10253,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934\/revisions\/10253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}