Porcupine,Good? Bad? or Just Ugly?

[sherwood]

I finally could get across the creek today to check for wind damage from recent wind storms on my property.  No damage from the wind, but I found this porcupine in a big white pine tree.  In the past I've always shot them.  All my friends and nieghbors I believe would do the same.  I'm not crazy about killing just for the sake of killing something.  

Do porcupines do much permanent damage to trees?  I would sure think they could spread oak wilt, if nothing else, and cause quite a bit of stress to the trees.

Your opinions, please.  Thank you in advance.

Sherwood

[Kirk_Allen]

I guess it would depend on where you live.  

While in Alaska, I went through survival training and I can tell you that you should never kill a porcupine unless its for survival.  

You see, a porcupine is the only wild critter that you dont need any more than a tree limb to kill it.  They can be approaced or run down by a human with no problem.  It is considered a survival food.

Now I know, most will never find themselves lost in the wild.  However, if you do find yourself in that position on your next hunting trip you will be wise to know and understand the porcupines habitiat.  

While 60 miles from the nearest road in Alaska we put our training to task.  We had food, but just wanted to see if we could find our survival animal in the event we needed to.  In less than 1 hour we found a potential habitiat for them, and then hiked the 1 mile to get their.  Did we score?  In less than a 300 yard streatch we counted over 50 of the critters.  Seems like a lot?  No, considering there were none any where else in either direction for at least 5 miles.  

Yes they can chew through the wires on your atv or vehicle and yes they love the glue in press board or ply wood but you will apreciate a good porcupine meal with little effort in the event you ever get lost in the wild.

Let them live.......so one day you may!

[Rocky_J]

Why would you wish to kill a critter just to kill a critter? You express some vague concern over Oakwilt (I don't believe any two experts have agreed on what causes or spreads that particular disease), but you said this particular critter was living in a Pine tree.

There are other critters on your property that you haven't found. Do you wish to kill every critter you find simply because they are living on a piece of property you own? I think I would suggest backing away from the 22 unless you have a nusaince critter doing extensive damage to your property and costing you money. If the poor critter wishes to live in a hollow tree that you cannot use for milling anyway, what harm is he doing? I'd be more likely to assume innocence unless proved otherwise. God put that critter here for a reason, probably something more important than a target for your 22.  

[sherwood]

Thanks Rocky & Kirk for your reply.  I have heard the survival food theory many times in my youth.  That wouldn't be an issue where I live because this area isn't remote.  
Bear and Coon hunters in this area have a lot of problems with their dogs getting in trouble with porcupines and I know what they would say.
I have many young white pine coming up but only about 6 that are truly big 4 feet in diameter on my 60 acres here. Two of those big white pine are close to dying, I think because of stress induced by porcupines but I could be wrong.  I would hate to lose one of these big old pines.
I don't believe these trees were ever struck by lightening, maybe it is just old age, nothing lives forever I guess.

[Mark M]

Rocky you must have never lived around pine trees or porcupines. When I was younger we always shot the 8!@#%^&* because they would eat the bark off the top of the tree and kill the tops. We had several dogs injured really bad and had to put one down because it had quills in it eyes. My mom and grandma used to blast them with the 30-30 because they are tough to kill. I too have heard the survivor food story as long as I can remember.

Now days I would just leave them alone (never really liked to kill anything I wasn't going to eat). Bald eagles also frequently kill the tops of white pines too but the trees still seem to live a long time. I don't know if the dead tops have significant impact on the forest or not but I know of some trees that have had dead tops for over 20 years.

Mark

[Kevin]

If they are causing damage to the trees I would impose capital punishment on them.
They are like beaver and kill trees and should be managed like every other resource.
If you kill it leave it belly up so the other animals can feast on it.
The meat can be eaten and the quills sold or traded for crafts but check your regs because they are protected in some areas.
We have a healthy fisher population here and they keep the porky population down.

[isawlogs]

  We usualy do not tolerate any porcupines on the farm where the cattle are in pasture ....Don't like the vet bills when they get cought up with one Mr. Porcupine , the dogs usualy get to him first thought and thats a pain in the butt , so at home I go for the 22, or any thing that comes to hand . Where I go moose hunting on goubermint land we don't shoot them , no reason to .

[SwampDonkey]

I was on the back of my 4 acre building lot and I find were a porky was spending part of the winter debarking my nice sugar maple. So the hunt was on, but he has left the area to live another day.  

Sherwood it could be the porkies or white pine blister rust infecting your trees. Do you have currants or gooseberry species in your area or in cultivation? They are the alternate host for white pine blister rust disease. There are 6 generations I believe in the disease's life cycle.

[sherwood]

Swamp Donkey,
Yes to currants,about 1/4 mile away. But the hundreds of smaller pine from seedling to 18 inch in dia. show no sign of stress that I have noticed.
Also is it possible your debarking of your sugar maple is cause be squirrels? Squirrels are known to do this.

[redpowerd]

i blast them cause they hurt my dogs and my pines. sometimes ill have some left over particle board and ill nail together a little den for the suckers and stick it near a run. sometimes theyll eat the whole thing in a few days, or chew a entrance hole and live there. then i blast them.
i usually burn it up with oil and branches or the box so the dogs dont find it. havent shot one in over a month so im proly due.

[Duane_Moore]

 :-/ Hay why don't you guys send me the hair off them there critters? I'll take it.   Duh---Duane

[SwampDonkey]

Sherwood:

Porky poop and foot prints  

[Frickman]

Penn State University has a research farm at Rock Springs, Pa where they have a farm show called Ag Progress Days every August. On it is a small demonstration/experimental woodlot where they give tours. Two summers ago we're walking down the trail and someone asked the forester if there where any porcupines on this woodlot. He said that in the ten plus years he worked on this woodlot he had never seen one. We turn the corner of the trail and there four feet off the trail sits a porcupine. We all got a good laugh out of it, because of the timing. Animals come and go in an area so we couldn't hold anything against the forester. Porcupines are rare in our area, I haven't seen around here in years. If I saw one and he wasn't bothering anything I'd wish him good luck and be on my way. Groundhogs are another matter though.

[L. Wakefield]

   FWIW I had heard the survival story and give creedance to it. I have had a dog hurt once by a porky. I figure it was a learning experience for the dog- hasn't happened again. Seen a bit of tree damage at times but never a tree killed by them .I gathered quills from a roadkill once. I let em alone and am glad to see them. They are rare around here.

  I don't believe they kill as many trees as people do.  lw

[Texas Ranger]

They are tough to clean,but with new potatoes and carrots, not bad.

Just to keep the FF tradition of food translations alive.

[Corley5]

We kill 'em.  Maple trees are way too valuable to be porky feed.  The quills aren't fun to pull out of dog and sometimes require a visit to the vet.  Some dogs never learn to stay away from them and will continually get tangled up with them and some dogs even die as a result of such an encounter.  A porky had better be pretty careful around here because he won't make it.

[whitepe]

I have no great love for them but I don't like to kill anything unnecessarily.  Back in 1974 one of those
pesky critters chewed through one of
the rubber brake hoses on our van and left my
college roommate and I stranded in the Allegheny
Natl Forest in Pennsylvania   We carefully drove 20 miles
in low gear with our hand on the emergency hand brake
to get it fixed at a Ford Dealership in Warren PA.
The mechanic said that they were after the salt
that had accumulated on the hoses.  We were lucky
as Porky only got one hose.  The guy a couple of days
before us had all four hoses damaged.

[Kevin]

They'll also eat the foundation out from under your camp or cottage.
A canoe left in the bush is a real treat for them.

[Tom]

What a movie that would make. "The Porky That Ate Canada".

What's the reason the chew all that stuff?

[Kevin]

Theyz hungry

[sherwood]

Tom,
I have heard they crave salt or anything they think tastes like
salt. Heard they would chew handles of tools for the taste
of perspiration or the salt in it.

[Tom]

That, and being real hungry would make them eat all kids of stuff, eh?  

I wonder..................

If they are a threat to trees, maybe the Forestry Service should consider an Rx or remedy that would include placing  salt blocks throughout the woods.  They could be drawn further and further away from populated areas and lots of animals would enjoy the salt blocks,  deer, buffalo, elk, moose, squirrels.  An enterprising young hunter could probably figure out just where his game would most likely be if he volunteered his services to maintain the blocks.

[Kirk_Allen]

They love the flavor of the glue in plywood, pressboard etc.  As far as hoses go, I know that they will eat through ignition wires in seconds on an ATV. Not sure why but they eat hoses but I have had several sets chewed away while in Alaska.  

We would keep several sets of plug wires in our cabin just for this reason.  

[SwampDonkey]

You know the white wall on your tires ? Well we were tenting on a woods landing away from mature trees and I heard this chewing at night. I go out with the flash light and look under the pickup and the *DanG thing was chewing the white wall. I drove it away. The next day I walked up the road and found and old hose where the porkies have been feedin on. Under the rubber part was the steal reinforcement. Probably a hydrologic hose, real healthy eh?  

eh? eh? that's the maritimer closing phrase.  eh?  

[Frickman]

I must say I'm learning alot about this topic. Our biggest pest with equipment is squirrels and chipmunks. Leave a truck parked for the weekend and they take up housekeeping under the hood.

[Tom]

I don't know what to do with chipmunks but I sure do squirrels.
They make a good breakfast if you fry'em and serve with an egg and grits.
................and biscuit.  

[Percy]

Im of the "Letem Live" camp but they love to eat rubber around here and can be quite a pest.

TRUE PORKYPINE STORY
In the mid  eighties, things were happenin around here. Everyone was workin, there was logging, sawmills, pulp mills. If you wernt workin, you were sick, rich, or lazy. Anyhow one logging outfit, Cedar River Timber, had a one particular buckerman, Reg Beckley, that just hated porkypines. The guy had alot of seniority and it was his job to drive the pickup with the loaderman (Dave Toop) always riding shotgun.Whenever Reg seen a porkypine, he'd do his best to run it over and kill it. This one particular morning while driving to work, they come around a rock bluff on the logging road. It was still dark, but getting light enough to see shapes. Well Reg spots this big black spot in the road up ahead and yells "Porky!!". He stomps down on the throttle and heads strait for the helpless black mass in the middle of the road. At the last second, Dave puts both hands on the dashboard and yells out "Reg, thats not a ".......... Too late. Reg slammed into a great big rock that had rolled off the bank during the night. Took the front axle right off of the fairly new 4X4 and placed it right next to the rear axle. Kinda looked like a tandem drive pickup. They musta been makin good money back then cause the owner of the outfit, Wilf Haugland, just laffed his guts out when he heard about it....

[Kevin]

I haven't checked but their teeth probably grow continuosly like the beaver and chewing is necessary to keep them from getting too long.

[Frickman]

He had to laugh, getting mad wouldn't helped any.

[Tom]

Kevin,
I didn't know that.

I have just gotten a good excuse to eat another meal a day.  thanks.   My wife said I was gettin' a little long in the tooth.

[Ron Scott]

Don't kick a Porky when you have rubber boots on, especially your new hip boots.