Texas Hunting Forum

spraying mesquite trees

Posted By: jigman

spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 04:53 AM

our land owner sprayed one of our pastures. every single tree has lost its leaves.2650 acres.will this ruin our season?

Posted By: bigsprig

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 04:58 AM

If you don't mind me asking, what part of Texas?

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 05:01 AM

motley county just south of northfield.

Posted By: Txduckman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 05:56 AM

Your season is screwed. Just pack it up.

Posted By: Closed Traverse

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 05:57 AM

NO it wont. the deer wont leave, the cover will still be there. good luck!

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 06:02 AM

thanks for the info guys.man i hope your wrong duckman i am looking forward to this season.

Posted By: cattle69

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 07:09 AM

The trees loose there leaves every winter, should be no difference, but the deer do eat some parts of the mequite tree. It will be worse when he sells all the dead mesquite to a wood cutter to come cut down after deer season and the wood has cured. Sounds to me you are leaseing from a guy who only cares about grazing. Needs to be a happy medium can't believe he did the whole pasture, unless it is one huge ranch.

Posted By: Brother in-law

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 07:30 AM

I had a lease once where everything was sprayed. We called it no mans land becuase nothing ever came into that area. Good luck

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/18/09 07:47 AM

thanks guys. im going to have a talk with him.he told us he would be spraying but i could not believe he did the whole pasture.he owns 12000 acres and he says he rotates spraying half every three to five years.i didnt think it would be every stinkin tree.

Posted By: wellingtontx

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/19/09 01:05 AM

About 1/3 of one of multiple pastures we lease burned last spring. Killed all of the mesquites. Although the grass and ground cover came back, the trees were dead as a door nail. Unfortunately, I have to say that the deer never really returned to the burned area with the dead mesquites in any substantial numbers. As a result, we gave up that pasture this year and leased another one.

Posted By: huntincoach

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/20/09 12:13 AM

Same thing happened to us last year. Fire destroyed a big draw on our lease. Now Nothing. We dont plan on hunting that part at all this year.

Posted By: Linkage

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/20/09 06:46 AM

This also depends on how big the trees were. Were they the little shrubs or the big hard woods, also are there any other trees in the area or other types of coverage?

Posted By: deewayne2003

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/21/09 05:21 AM

people talk about loosing trees and leaves; but i think the best managment tool and the least used is FIRE! Over grazing and lack of fire is the reason that south texas is so grown up.

Posted By: wellingtontx

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/21/09 07:06 PM

deewayne - I agree; however, we are in west TX/panhandle and trees are few and far between. They simply dont exist.

Posted By: CoyoteLL

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/23/09 11:15 PM

Hunting is secondary income. Mesquite is bad for the grass. Always gonna be a conflict between good cattle country and good cover.

We sprayed our place in Spur. Wish we hadn't for the deer, but the cattle have alot to eat now.

Posted By: mmccalli

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/23/09 11:17 PM

Quote:

Hunting is secondary income. Mesquite is bad for the grass. Always gonna be a conflict between good cattle country and good cover.

We sprayed our place in Spur. Wish we hadn't for the deer, but the cattle have alot to eat now.




This is true.

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/25/09 03:10 AM

if you are leasing the place for deer hunting,then show some consideration towards them dont just take there money and say good luck.knowing you are about to spray the whole pasture!secondary income or not you still took someones hard earned money!

Posted By: fishman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/27/09 04:24 AM

There are plenty of deep canyons and draws on the 2650 acres pasture. The deer still have lots of places to hide. Even though it's wide open now, all of the other land in that area is pretty much wide open also. I don't think it's gonna hurt a thing.

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/27/09 07:44 AM

YOU BETTER HOPE YOUR RIGHT! CLAY ALREADY SAID HE LIKES YOUR SPOT!HE SCOUTED IT OUT LAST TIME HIM AND MIKE WERE OUT THERE.THEY BOTH LIKED IT.

Posted By: fishinbob2

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/27/09 09:00 AM

They sprayed the place next to us a few years ago and it ruined it but that was the only cover there was no cactus or brush for the deer to hide in .Hope it isn't that bad for you

Posted By: jdowney4092

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 05:44 PM

Jigman... I also hunt in Motley County, but we are slightly east of Northfield. With all the canyons in the area, and the way the deer up there act, you shouldn't have a problem. Come on, how many times have you driven back to Childress, or even to Turkey right at dusk and how many deer have you seen? I was sitting in a blind 60 yards from a feeder, with little cover, and was whistling very loudly at a very nice 8 (I had already shot my buck). He didn't mind. He hung around for 45 minutes and munched some corn. The deer up there are different. What I'm more interested in is the change in limits. You should be too.

Posted By: fishman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 06:00 PM

Quote:

You should be too.




I hunt up ther with jigman. You're right on the part about seeing lots of deer in the wide open. What kind of changes did they make on the limits?

Posted By: jdowney4092

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 06:06 PM

Now a 5 deer county. 2 bucks 3 does, extended season by 2 weeks. Mule deer the same. I'm feelin it. I'm tagging out on does opening weekend, no matter what. I'm not waiting this year. I waited until after I shot my buck (around Thanksgiving) and didn't see 1 doe. Saw about 20 in the first 2 weeks.

Posted By: Whiterock

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 07:19 PM

sorry I didnt read every post in the string but I can say this, depending on the product he used the effective hit rate of trees could be somewhere around 65% the following year. Sure the leaves get burned off but that is cosmetic damage and not a true kill in most cases. Depending on the population of the trees, 65% less might enhance the available grass and produce a healtier deer? If there is a tree every 10 sq feet then you have 4356 trees per acre. 35% live and you still have 1500 trees to the acre. I'm not a wildlife biologist, just a ag chem guy.

Posted By: fishman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 09:04 PM

Quote:

Now a 5 deer county. 2 bucks 3 does, extended season by 2 weeks. Mule deer the same. I'm feelin it. I'm tagging out on does opening weekend, no matter what. I'm not waiting this year. I waited until after I shot my buck (around Thanksgiving) and didn't see 1 doe. Saw about 20 in the first 2 weeks.




Where did you find this info? I tried to look it up on the TPWD website and it would only pull up the 08-09 season limits.

Posted By: Curtis

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/28/09 11:04 PM

If you get a burn in the spring you will kill a lot of the mesquites, for a while. If you burn in the winter on a controlled burn its a lot better because the plants are dormant and you will see your results quicker.

Remedy works great. But we quit using diesel because we got a better kill with using Cide Kick as a surfactant(sp?) and or regular dish soap. Diesel will kill the leaf on any plant just about and almost immediately and put the plant into dormant before the Remedy can react. Which means it will come back the next year and thus your much lower success rate on the spray. You will get a better kill rate NOT using diesel if you are spraying the leaves. If you do want to use the diesl, avoid the leaves and just spray the ground around the plant, at the base and the trunk and branches of the mesquite. If its a largeer tree, take a small axe or hatchet and cut into the wood just a bit getting the outside bark off and into the plant. Spray only that cut and do that on each brank or trunk coming up. I have killed 8" diameter mesquite trees doing this and its very little spray that you need to use. Also, if your going to spray mesquites after a lane has been cut or piece has been bulldozed, you need to do that within 20-30 minutes of that happeneing. The mequite will develop a protective sap on the exposed cut and will be protected from the poison and is harder to kill.

Posted By: wellingtontx

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/29/09 06:51 AM

fishman - go the TPW site and look under the proposed rules and the regs that were adopted are set forth in that area.

Posted By: whitetailfanatic

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/29/09 09:43 PM

Our landowner sprays ours about every other year but you can't kill them things

Posted By: fishman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 02:03 AM

Quote:

Our landowner sprays ours about every other year but you can't kill them things




Does it effect the hunting?

Posted By: Closed Traverse

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 03:56 AM

curtis has it right. if u cut the tree, 20 min or u might as well had left it alone. if ur doin remedy and diesel, u can really only spray the bigger trees that actually look like trees and not bushes affectively by only spraying the base. if u are spraying small ones, use the remedy and water mixture and spary the entire plant.

Posted By: jigman

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 03:59 AM

our land owner used an air plane.

Posted By: LordSweep

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 04:22 AM

Our places are about a mile from each other and we have a serious problem on our place with em.We have gallons of Remedy but we applied it wrong.

Posted By: Curtis

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 07:11 AM

You might also consider adding a blue dye to the spray. You would be suprised how much farther your tank will last once you can clearly see what you have already sprayed. I think we wasted a lot of money before doing that because we over sprayed some stuff. Sure it can be a little messy but it saves some money if your carefull.

Posted By: Closed Traverse

Re: spraying mesquite trees - 07/30/09 08:10 AM

curtis im workin for a guy out in dilworth, and he has me use the blue dye.... ive never used it before then, but i can tell u it sure does help to see what u have sprayed, and it lets me know what i have sprayed. now i come home looking like a smurf. its weird when u take a shower, llook down and seee purty blue water runnin off ur legs lol!!! it doesnt stain clothes though.



What i have noticed is that he adds 8 oz dye to 25 gallons mix. i think he could use 4oz and it would be just the same. i know the bottle would go twice as far aand even more money saved.

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