Outdoors with Larry DiDonato - Beware of Bears Bearing Fruit

Black bears can wreak havoc on fruit trees this time of year. Their strength can totally destroy especially younger saplings. One method to discourage this is to safely hang ammonia in plastic bottles, using heavy fishing line. Top the bottles with ammonia-soaked rags to increase effectiveness. Be careful to avoid spilling ammonia on fruit, leaves, bark as well as on your hands. When hung surrounding a fruit tree you are trying to protect, the strong irritating odor can bother a bear's acute sense of smell, potentially keeping them away from the sweet reward of apples, pears, peaches, and other soft mast.

Have you noticed broken branches on your fruit trees lately? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. This time of year, black bears are in the midst of foraging soft mast like apples, pears, and peaches, in their quest to pack on weight to help get them through the long winter. Last week, what’s become an unwelcome annual ritual struck once again. I saw a black bear standing under my rather old, large pear tree. By its side laid a heavy branch measuring over 4-inches in diameter. The big branch, and the rest of the tree, was laden with pears. The black bear stood its ground. It refused to run off despite my making loud noises, which had done the trick in the past. I soon learned why. The large sow delayed her abrupt departure until her cub, which remained hidden in the canopy, until it hurriedly scampered down the tall tree. That completed, they both hit the ground running.

Loss of the large branch from the huge 50 plus year-old tree didn’t do it any harm, but that was not the case with a much younger, small apple tree the week prior. The thin sapling suffered broken branches it could not much afford. This was a little disheartening since this was the first year it finally produced a crop of small, but viable green apples. Luckily for the little sapling, it seems the cub, rather than its 200-plus pound mother climbed the tree breaking the thin branches. I saw distinct small dotted orange claw marks up the bark, providing evidence the tree was climbed by the cub, likely as the sow stood by, teaching it how to get quality soft mass from fruit trees.

Last year, damage to a slightly larger apple tree and a tall, thin pear tree was more extensive with a good number of prime limbs snapped off by a large bear. Short of erecting an electric fence around your prized fruit trees, there are ways you can safely discourage bears form destroying your fruit trees. My response then, and once again this year, was to hang plastic bottles partially filled with household strength ammonia to deter the destruction. This year, I added ammonia-soaked rags atop some of the empty gallon and one-liter water bottles which I perforated to allow the noxious smell of ammonia emanate through the air. My aim is to allow the burning aroma to dissuade black bears. Bears generally avoid such odors that must be unpleasant given the powerfully acute olfactory senses in their elongated snouts. So far, it appears to be working, but as the fruit ripens that remains to be seen.

*Remember, never mix ammonia with bleach or vinegar. Combining ammonia and bleach produces the dangerous and highly toxic compound, chloramine gas. “Inhaling chloramine gas, produced when bleach and ammonia are mixed, can cause a range of health issues, from mild irritation to severe respiratory distress and even death, depending on the concentration and duration of exposure.” If you mix ammonia with vinegar, it produces another dangerous substance, chlorine gas. It’s a good rule NEVER to mix any of these substances and use them as their labels and trusted guidance direct.

Remember the adage, remove the food, remove the bear. Pick fruit the moment it can be harvested and ripen the rest of the way off the tree whenever possible. It’s tough to beat bears to the prize as they are willing to eat them a bit before our palate can handle the tart, unripened fruit.

That being said, follow DECs guidelines to keep bears from visiting your property in search of human food sources in the first place.

At-Home BearWise Basics

Avoiding human-bear conflicts begins with prevention. By following the at-home BearWise basics, you can help reduce the likelihood of human-bear conflict in your backyard.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, encourage bear hunting near you to keep bear numbers in-check, especially during the early bear gun season, if open in your area. This year the season opens west of the Hudson in selected Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) on September 6th and runs through September 21st. Go to https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/hunting/deer-bear/seasons for more information on bear hunting seasons. Hunting black bears in September can effectively target nuisance and problem bears which remain in their summer feeding patterns. Unfortunately, those patterns all too often include human food sources or natural food sources like fruit trees in close proximity to homes.

Wildlife management begins with you. Promoting hunting bears, deer, and other wildlife keeps populations in balance with available habitat, limiting negative human interactions.

So, do your part and get out and hunt early and hunt often. If you don’t hunt, consider allowing others to do so for the benefit of all!

Happy hunting, fishing, and trapping until next time!

News and Notes

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: Last week’s Outdoors column’s opening sentence announced, “…hunting and trapping licenses and Deer Management Permits (DMPs) for the 2025-26 season are now on sale THROUGH October 1st.” *While DMPs are only available through October 1st 2025, hunting and trapping licenses are of course, available throughout the year.