Lets talk hack and squirt

This is the Craig Harper blend. Pricey but he swears it is the sauce.

I’m still not sold on the idea of hack and squirt over hinge cutting but I guess if you are improving acres at a time the hack and squirt method is going to be more efficient. If you’re just looking to sweeten up a particular area and encourage bedding think that lends itself more to hinge, as deer will still browse even less desirable trees if they’re in reach and will use the laydowns for cover.

Basal application is easier. Walking the woods with a drill and a windex bottle is not a high production operation.

Friends Dad has been doing it for sometime now on his property to clear out trash trees. He mixes 50/50 diesel and remedy in a windex bottle. It works.

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Stump sprouts everywhere and turned into a jungle.

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Ya this is what I'm definitely trying to avoid.

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Apparently LDWF has been doing this on some wma’s. Was talking with my brothers about it and couldn’t remember the term for the method so I just started calling them “scratch and sniff areas” lol
The ones I came across on the wma are pretty new and open, haven’t grown up yet, and the deer avoid them like the plague. I figured out that they work well to funnel deer and moved my setups accordingly. Not sure how they will play out long term though.

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Once it starts getting thick they'll be loaded with deer.

For you guys who are trying to improve habitat for deer, I recommend these 2 podcasts with Dr. Craig Harper.
1. Google “Manage your fields for bigger bucks and better hunting “
2. Gamekeepers podcast Episode 255
“New fire data.
Managing old field habitat And using prescribed fire can yield great results.
Once I get my gums cleared, that’s my plan.

I’m spraying 150 acre stand of slash pines next summer. Forester said August is the best time. I will say this…slash & squirt isn’t always effective. You may have to hit it multiple times. I’ve seen one method where they drill, fill it with a granular table and seal it up inside the tree.

It really depends on how often you are on the land during the growing season.
If you are there every other weekend or so, works great!
Once cut, keep a sprayer on your 4 wheeler and hit the new growth. After a couple of times, the root system will die.
I just spray here and there as I go about my day and maybe a trip a month to unvisited areas.

It never became more desirable when the other species were also cut, so if you have a realistic chance to selectively eradicate sweetgum it’s not worth leaving them just for this, but Lashley and these guys both found that it was highly utilized.

LINK