acorn shortage

[jntrees]

I just read this in the news today. There is a shortage of acorns this year. I'm up here in Northern Virginia and there are none! It just dawned on me when I read this, didn't really notice before. After I thought about it though, I don't recall seeing any acorns at all!
It's really strange, not many pine cones either.
Thoughts?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/12/acorn.shortage/

 

[Rookie1]

Squirrels are going to be hungry this winter.

 

[Locoweed]

In this part of the world, a late hard freeze was responsible.

 

[gr8scott72]

Funny because here, I've noticed more acorns this year on the ground than I can remember in the past.

 

[pdqdl]

That would be a very long walk to dinner for the Virginia squirrels !

 

[pbtree]

They seem plentiful out my way...

 

[yo2001]

I had less then what I was expecting on acorns around my area but other nut trees (hickery, walnut etc.) did real well so I might just be overthiking it

 

[Sunrise Guy]

I posted on this before. In Austin, our weather has favored a bumper crop of squirrels. Where I've seen one or two litters a year, this past year I've seen three and four. With so many squirrels running around, food is scarce. The acorns on my red and live oaks were eaten on the tree. Where I normally got tons of acorns falling onto my pool cover, this year I got tiny pieces of acorns from the squirrels eating them off the tree before they even matured. The really dangerous thing is, now the squirrels are gnawing and stripping bark from newer growth and newer wound callus, as they have less to eat than in previous years. Since they can't actively digest the wood pulp, this activity may be born of desperation and starvation. Possibly they are after the moisture in the new growth as it's been very dry here, too. Once the oak wilt beetles, the nitidulids, start hatching and swarming in Feb/Mar., I'm afraid we're going to see more and more oaks get infected because of all the fresh wounds they'll have from the squirrels' activity. Austin has already lost hundreds and hundreds of oaks to oak wilt, and the squirrels may now accelerate this loss, soon.

 

[carvinmark]

We use acorns for deer bait and crafts. This year was very slim compared to the last few years.

 

[Toddppm]

I hadn't really noticed until it was mentioned but now that I think about it I haven't really seen any except as Sunrise guy mentioned. I remember a couple months ago seeing a lot of acorn bits on the ground under a tree I was trying to id and couldn't find a single one on the tree just pieces underneath.
I'll have to check in my yard and see what's around. Lot's of Hickory nuts further out in Shenandoah Valley though.

This line made me laugh "residents have reported seeing skinny, aggressive squirrels devouring bird feed."

You could change that to skinny agressive tree climbers the way work is going this year.

 

[treeslayer]

my mom puts out more 50 lbs of squirrel and birdseed a week every morning at 6 am. its amazing to see the wild life come out of the woods, and eat. lots of different birds and 20 or more squirrels from all over. see pic. they ignore the cats, and us. even the deer come thru at noon to get a bite.

I set a 2' flat board 8" off the ground, hanging from 10' of bungee cords on the end of a 1/2' rope in a big tree. covered it with feed, and sat back with a cup of coffee, and watched the fun begin.

the squirrels go nuts (pun intended) with it bouncing and swaying, falling off and trying to get back on, and the more treerats on it, the harder it is.
priceless, I should film it.

the VA deer are the ones gonna suffer, I 'll put a few out of their misery next week.

 

[trimmmed]

There was plenty of acorns and hemlock cones here this year.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Like any fruit there is a natural cycle to acorn production. I've read the that there is a 6-8 year cycle between bumper crops in stands studied long term in CA.

If a low yield year for several species coincides with high critter populations then there will probably be a dieoff. This is called a drop in carrying capacity, with the oak seed being the primary load of the carrying capacity for the tree rats...eer...squirrels. If this is the case, you may see a lot of bark damage dieback from squirrel chewing in the spring.

 

[jomoco]

It's my understanding that oaks go through natural cycles of heavy, and very light to no acorn production.

Though I've noticed that trees as a whole across the country are not in much better shape than we are as a nation these days.

Trees and people have a surprising degree of similarities, bacterial, fungal, viral and parasitic infections that can lead to death without treatment.

jomoco

 

[treeman73]

I'm in Connecticut and there seems to be a shortage of acorns/nuts around. I haven't seen any acorns or hickory nuts on my trees this year (just on a few pin oaks)

I do think this will affect the squirrels. Last month, I had a squirrel chew through 2 of my plastic gas cans - I guess they like the Neoprene. See attached photo.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I'll have to check in my yard and see what's around. Lot's of Hickory nuts further out in Shenandoah Valley though.

We seem to have a normal amount at my place. Maybe some of the other Shenandoah Valley residents can comment.


Our squirrels aren't skinny, but "aggressive squirrels devouring bird feed" does describe our deck every morning.

Finally found a bird feeder that slows them down, anyway.

 

[oldugly]

I haven't noticed a shortage of acorns in our area at all. My burrs are producing very well, and supporting a tremendous amount squirrels. Other nuts, well this is MN,,,we never have a shortage of nuts. Our entire population has to be certifiably insane to live here in the winter.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

So a lot of tree guys will be feeding their families squirrel kabobs this winter

Wal-Mart is seeing signs of people eating at home and utilizing leftovers "more efficiently".

 

[dingeryote]

No shortage here, though they seemed smaller than normal.

Last year there were fewer, but it was a dry year.

Y'all laugh about folks eating acorns, but roasted and then ground into a flour, they are quite tasty when made into pancakes.
Never mind the worm here and there...

Dingeryote

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

No shortage here, though they seemed smaller than normal.

Last year there were fewer, but it was a dry year.

Y'all laugh about folks eating acorns, but roasted and then ground into a flour, they are quite tasty when made into pancakes.
Never mind the worm here and there...

Dingeryote

White oak are tasty, red oak are way too bitter. I like chewing on bur oak every now and then, chopped up with honey, mm mm MMM mm.