Fruit Tree Mouse Damage

When there's lots of snow on the ground and you're just a little mouse, it's tough finding your next meal. But if you happen to be scampering around fruit trees, dinner is served. Apple trees especially have thin bark and are very easy to chew on.

Ward Upham is an Extension horticulturist at Kansas State University. He says mice will go after any prunings on the ground first. If there's snow covering the prunings, the rodents will focus on the tasty trunks.

"They don't go deep into the tree, what they're after is that tissue that's just under the bark. But when they do that, they can damage the cambium and the phloem tissues which can cut off the food supply to that root system. And that's what actually damages the tree," says Upham. "So what you're looking for is actual damage to the trunk. Now it's going to be close to the ground, and you're going to see part of that trunk tissue chewed away."

If they gnaw all the way around the trunk, the damage can be severe enough to kill the tree.

Upham says the best way to protect your fruit trees from mice is to deny them a place to hide.

"First thing you do is just clean up around the tree. Make sure there's no grass, no weeds, because that's where they go to hide. These mice are prey for a number of our predators such as foxes and coyotes, and can cut down on the population," says Upham. "So if you have all that area cleared out, you can reduce the population quite a bit just because predators can easily find them."

You can also use a physical barrier such as hardware cloth around the trunk so they can't get through it. Setting a mousetrap isn't a bad idea, either. Upham recommends putting it inside a PVC pipe that's large enough to hold a trap, but small enough so wildlife and pets can't get to it.