Tips for Preventing Beaver Damage

by Betsy Washington

Generally beavers cannot access properties with seawalls that are 2’ or more above the lake bottom. However, beavers are notoriously clever, and will climb steps, ladders, or small openings for drainage to gain access to desirable plants.
Beavers have even climbed up on piles of sticks, bricks, and other debris and used their teeth to grab hold of seawalls and leverage themselves up from the lake. Beavers prefer to take trees within short distances of the water, but they have been known to travel more than 50’ from the water to get to desirable plants. And remember, those busy beavers can take down several good sized trees in a single night of work. Prevention is this best policy!

Tree Cages: The best way to protect your trees is to wrap them with cylinder cages made of hardware cloth or sturdy 2 X 4” welded wire fencing about 31/2 - 4’ high. Encircle the trunk, leaving at least 6” between the tree and fence on all sides so that beavers cannot lean against or gnaw through the fencing. Cut every other horizontal wire and bend into hooks to secure to the other side of the cylinder. You may anchor the cages to the ground with stakes to keep beavers from pushing it against the tree or you may bend the top few inches of the wire against the tree to hold the wire cage away from the tree. We have found that dark green, plastic coated hardware cloth fencing is nearly invisible in wooded yards. This is available at Home Depot and most hardware stores.

Paint/Sand Mix: “Painting” tree trunks with a mixture of latex and gritty play sand is a newer method that has been successful in preventing gnawing and beaver damage to trees. Latex allows the bark to “breathe”, while the gritty texture of the sand deters beavers. This is not recommended for newly planted trees smaller than about 6’ in height and must be renewed every two or three years.
Use 8 oz. of fine sand to1 quart of exterior grade latex paint
For larger batches mix 20 oz. of sand to 1 gal. latex paint).
Paint stores can match the color of a bark sample of your tree if you are picky about the appearance of your trees. We have also had success in using a clear latex paint or shellac mixed thoroughly with sand, however this may not allow small trees to breathe. Paint trees to a height of between 3.5 to 4’ and renew the paint every 2 - 3 years as needed. A number of trees in the woods beside Beach 3 have been “painted” with this technique and have not been bothered by beavers.

Fencing: If you have a large shoreline that is not protected by a seawall, you may prefer to fence the shoreline of your property although this may be subject to approval by the ARC. The ARC can advise you on various options. (We have recently used dark green plastic coated hardware fencing held securely with green metal fence posts hammered into the ground at the Beach 5 RPA Garden to deter further beaver damage. You can check it out there – I think it is fairly inconspicuous and certainly looks better than the flimsy chicken wire fence that was initially used).

Repellents, are a much less reliable means of protection, but may be used on small saplings and foliage plants as a deterrent and may be effective for a short time. Repellents seem to work best when other nearby food sources are available. Ropel and repellants with sulphur compounds such as Deer Off may deter the beavers for a short time, but will need to be reapplied regularly.