In winter, hares living in the forest look for sources of food in orchards with fruit trees. The most preferred by these animals are just apple trees - both young and mature trees. In this article you will learn how to protect apples from hares in the winter.
Did you know? The most favorite fruit trees and shrubs for hares are apples, plums, apricots, currants, hawthorn. Among the unloved - cherry, pear.
What are dangerous hares in the garden
Hares, singly or in groups penetrating your garden, first of all destroy young trees, shoots, eat bark. After finishing with juicier food, they move on to mature trees, stripping bark from them at a height of up to one meter. 
This height becomes available to them when the hares stand on their hind legs, leaning their forepaws on a tree. If the trees in winter are bark-free, then they rather quickly die, freezing.
It will be useful for you to learn how to shelter an apple tree for the winter from frost and rodents.
How to recognize the activity of the animal
Hares feed on bark and shoots of apple trees at night and at dawn, so it’s difficult to see them. In addition, these animals have excellent hearing and any rustling or movement will be noticed immediately, quickly leaving the "crime scene".
However, the activity of hares can be recognized by the following features:
- The shoots of young trees are cut down at the root.
- The bark of young and more mature trees, shrubs is missing partially or completely (at a height of up to one meter)
- On the site there were holes, undermining
- Waste hare.
How to protect the apple from hares, preventive measures
In winter, for gardeners, one of the main tasks is the preservation of fruit trees - both from cold and from rodent attacks.
Young apple trees, their bark and shoots are a favorite dainty of hares. Therefore, it is important to know how to save apples from hares in the winter.
Did you know? Hares are not afraid of dogs and can easily run away from them, so this guard will not save the trees from destruction.
Induce cleanliness in the garden
Bringing cleanliness to the garden plot is an excellent method of prevention, as hares are afraid of open spaces where there is no place to hide. 
Therefore, it is necessary to remove dried and cut branches, heaps of fallen leaves, debris, objects in the garden. A good overview will appear for you, and the hares will be afraid to penetrate the site where they are easy to spot.
Learn all the subtleties of pruning an apple in the spring and autumn.
Garden Digging
Digging the soil layer to a depth of 30-40 cm is mainly done in the fight against smaller rodents - for example, mice, because this method will help to destroy their underground passages. 
However, hares can also make digging, and, having dug up the earth, you can make it more difficult for them to penetrate your garden.
Scare methods [electronics, bottles, wool, etc.]
To prevent the hare from entering the site, many gardeners use various methods. Among them - an ultrasonic repeller.
This modern method is quite effective and humane, in addition, it allows you to scare away not only the hares, but also other animals.
Important! Ultrasonic repeller expels from the site and does not allow close to him many animals, both smaller ones - hares and squirrels, and large ones - wolves and boars.
The device is triggered by motion, picking it up with an infrared sensor. Finding some kind of movement, the repeller includes a special ultrasound, which is heard by animals, but invisible to the human ear. 
Hares do not tolerate this sound, produced with different frequencies, and run away. The coverage area of the ultrasonic repeller is about 100 square meters. m
Find out also what are the methods of controlling such pests as: moles, mice, aphid, onion fly, weevil, Colorado potato beetle, nematodes, whitefly, earwig, ground beetle, slug, mole rat, cockchafer, shrew, wireworm.A popular way to protect apples from hares for the winter are polyethylene bottles attached to the barrel.
They need to cut along and put on like a ring on the bottom of the tree. On sale there are also special plastic tubes for this purpose.
Since the hares are very shy, some gardeners hang strips of shiny and rustling material (foil, carbon paper) on the branches of apple trees. 
However, hares can get used to these items after a few weeks, so this method cannot be called reliable.
It is believed that hares do not like the smell of dog hair, so its shreds are tied to the ends of young branches. Also the smell of wormwood, tar, kerosene belongs to the frightening odors.
Important! The most inhumane and therefore not recommended methods are traps and traps for hares.
Methods to protect the apple from hares, how to protect your garden
Damage to the bark of fruit trees by rodents leads to a decrease or disappearance of the subsequent harvest and even to the death of a plant left without protection.
How and from what to make fencing
The most effective way of explaining how to protect saplings from hares is to install fencing.
A strong and durable fence made of brick, stone, chain-link mesh will be a sufficient barrier for rabbits. 
At the same time, sectional fences, fences of boards with large gaps, the animals will overcome with ease.
In this case, use a fine-meshed metal mesh, with which you can close the most problematic areas of the main fence.
If the garden is large enough, then the most valuable apple varieties are wrapped with such a net. Height of mesh fencing - from 100 to 130 cm, it must be buried 30 cm deep.
How to wind trees from hares
For a long time, gardeners have tried various methods to figure out how to deal with hares in the garden. 
There is an old proven method used now because of its accessibility - tying with fir branches of a tree trunk.
It is better to make several layers, arranging lapnik so that the needles are looking down.
Did you know? Tying the apple trees should be done before the first snow, after the leaf fall, as when the snow falls, the hares are left without food.
Winding the trunk with any materials should be carried out in compliance with the main rule - the material must pass air.
In addition, in the spring you need to remove the winding in time to avoid overheating of the trunk and a sharp temperature drop, which can lead to cracking of the tree bark. 
Burlap is used as a winding, for example, from under sugar. You can also use old nylon tights, parchment paper.
If there is access to the river, then the trunk is recommended to be overlaid with reeds, its hares do not like.
We advise you to learn the rules for pruning old trees.
Chemical processing of apple trees
In the fight against raids hares use and chemical means. Information about this method will help to know how else to scare hares from the garden.
Asking how to prepare apple trees for winter, gardeners recall whitewashing, which can be successfully used as a chemical protection against hares. 
The composition of such a special whitewash includes copper sulphate, it is also not washed off by precipitation.
Natural remedy that scares hares, - This is black ground pepper. With its help, borders are created around the most attractive young plants.
However, sprinkling pepper on your site, make sure that your pets do not have access to it.
Special chemical repellents that are sprayed around trees can be found in stores. But, like black pepper, the repellent is easily washed off by rain, so its effect can be extended by constantly updating the applied layer of the chemical.
Important! Alone for painting the trunk, you can make such a solution - clay and cow manure in equal proportions with the addition of carbolic acid. The smell of the mixture will scare the hare away from the treated wood.
Garden treatment: what to do if hares have already gnawed trees
Unfortunately, it happens that the preventive measures were ineffective or were not applied on time, so the hares had time to enjoy the bark of young trees in your garden.
Gardeners often wonder how to restore an apple tree after rodents and whether it can be done at all. 
If you act quickly, the plant can be saved. To do this, you need to smear the place of damage with the solution intended for this purpose, which is sold in specialized stores.
At home, you can use a mixture of clay and cow manure. Also, for effective healing it is necessary to wrap this place with a protective material - burlap, nylon.
Damage to the bark of fruit trees by rodents, in particular, by hares, can often be prevented by knowing the characteristics of their behavior and preferences.
Having protected apple trees in the winter time with the help of various methods of prevention and scaring, you can save your garden and get a good harvest afterwards.
