Japanese maples have a very thin bark that squirrels find attractive for building nests. As long as they do not strip the bark from around the full circumference of the trunk, the tree should be fine.

Other than trapping, shooting or the attentions of a big dog, I have no suggestions on how to control the squirrel population :-) But carefully and loosely wrapping chicken wire around the base and affected branches should deter them.

Thanks. The feeder is just decor, there's been no seed in it for a long time. I tried a cage trap, baited it with peanuts and peanut butter, they haven't touched it in days despite it being in a high-traffic area for them. I've tried putting cayenne and peppermint oil on the branches. My husband's "Red Ryder" BB gun does absolutely nothing and we've got no fence for a dog. The chicken wire wouldn't keep them out because the trees are right next to our house, they can get in the trees by jumping from the roof.

I think it's come down to getting a large barn cat and learning how to use my inherited Nylon 66. We live in the country and neighbor is fine with me trapping/shooting squirrels. No idea how to dress em' out but I would hate good meat to go to waste.

If the trees are close enough to the house for them to jump on, then they are too close!! You are going to have worse problems than squirrel damage eventually.

btw, the chicken wire is extremely effective. They are only looking for larger branches with an abundance of bark they can remove. You just need to be a bit creatve in how you apply it.

These trees are mature Japanese Maples and are naturally small. We didn't plant them but simply prune back any branches that may be too close to roofline. The squirrels are chewing on any branch they can reach, including ones with a small diameter. Can you include any pictures of how the chicken wire would be applied?

My guess is that you could hang pokey stuff like square pieces of hardware cloth or bits of chicken wire, as if they were Christmas ornaments. There being no safety glasses in squirrel size, I'd think getting poked in the eye by a sharp-edged something might be worse than being shot, to a critter. At least it's over with the latter. When I was a kid we had a cat that hunted squirrel, but she had hungry kits in the barn. Usually a cat will just look at a squirrel and you sorta watch it thinking, "Not in the mood today...." Our neighbors do not have fences, either. Even those that do, don't put their dogs on the inside of them. But ours is a country setting, 12 houses each with an acre or more, and outside of the city limits. We all know each other's dogs and they sort of "belong" to all of us, in many ways. I don't want 'em digging and tromping around in my garden so I've had to fence to keep them OUT.

I've read about some people that have those motion-sensor water sprayers and they say that works for just about anything that moves, including a homeless person that was in the habit of peeing on trees in their neighborhood. I have a friend that hangs Christmas tree icicles and shiny ribbon, maybe some old CD's, from some of her trees. Keeps away the jaybirds. Not sure whether it would help with squirrels.

A lower branch died in my Japanese maple so I removed it. Lately I’m seeing a black squirrel on the tree, chewing away on the bark. Now a larger, higher branch is dead. I’m worried I may loose the whole tree. I’m pondering mixing some peanut butter and boric acid and schmeering it by the chew marks. The boric acid and sugar works wonders on ants...

There is something inherently wrong with your argument about using the bark for nesting. I have only one small Japanese maple and hundreds of other nut-bearing trees around — a beech shedding nuts this year and dozens of red and white oaks with their acorns around — yet the squirrels are coming back repeatedly to the maple to chew, even within 30 minutes of being chased 100 yards away through a high canopy with a slingshot. I even tracked down a young squirrel through that canopy to a nest that is around 1/8 mile away via its tree-branch route to its nest. There has to be something beyond food shortage to their chewing. It is mostly likely a unique flavor to the sap, and boredom with the plain fare of acorns readily available on the ground this time of year (autumn).