Re: [AlpacaTalk] Cherry trees: how toxic?

Tish,

With 30 acres it would be wise to pen your alpacas away from the woods ASAP
until you figure out a solution. AsI recall it was Brad Sprouce of Michigan
who originally identified the meningeal (sp) worm and the nesting habits of
the worm and their love for living in rotting cherry stumps. He built a
separate 8 high ft fence around his pastures in order to keep the white tail
deer out. Now he had a double fence with a 5 foot space between them
considering that the worm could not travel that far. This is such a serious
problem with camelids and white tail deer that at one time I had my llama
herd insured for over $400,000 for mortality. One female baby sold a year
paid for this insurance for us on top of doing everything in my power to
eliminate the problem. We still lost llamas to the (M) worm on occasion and
had even more of them crippled from it.

Have I scared the ever lovin HELL out of you yet?? I apologize if I have,
but this problem IS just that serious. Please look further into this by
checking with old time llama breeders for their input. I feel confident that
alpacas and llamas would have the same problem with the (M) worm.

Best of luck and please keep in touch as I am very concerned about this
problem. If I can help just one person from the heart ache and frustration
we had with losing our beloved llamas to this god awful worm I will feel
very good about myself.

Sincerely,

Paul Wade

-------Original Message-------

From: Tish Carpinelli
Date: 04/23/06 09:23:51
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] Cherry trees: how toxic?

Paul-
Wow, I hadn't heard about the stump/parasite issue! And we sure do have
whitetail deer around here (so many that I have to put deer netting over all
my plants if I expect a garden!). I guess we'll have to look into that issue
as well. I know about the yew toxicity, and we do have them on the premises,
as well as aborvite (sp?). We are really careful where we dump what, and we
have a large parcel of land, so it's pretty easy. The problem is that most
of it is wooded, and with these cherry trees interspersed throughout. Last
summer, when the owners of the farm where we were buying our animals looked
over our land, they pointed out the "swamp cherries" that were in close
proximity to the area where the paddocks would be, but because of the
overgrowth of leaves in the summer (and our ignorance of tree species) we
didn't see all the others. So now we have the animals, and we are
discovering all these additional trees that have to come down, and my
husband is running around being Paul Bunyan trying to get them down before
they grow leaves! Unfortunately, we can't comfortably afford to bulldoze
large sections at this point, but even if we could, we would still be
worried about the leaves blowing from other areas. Someone who responded to
my question said that she understood that when the leaves are dry and
blowing around one or two wouldn't be a problem (I'm going to make sure I
back that up, but I hope she's right). This whole thing is making me really
nervous!

Thanks for your help!

Tish Carpinelli


----- Original Message -----
From: "paul" <swanlakellamas@adelphia.net>
To: <AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 9:26 PM
Subject: Re: [AlpacaTalk] Cherry trees: how toxic?


> Tish,
>
> Back in 1982 or 83 I added 4 more acres to my property. It was full of
Huge
> wild cherry trees. Because of the danger of drying fallen leaves that
> contained cyanide I cut them down and had them sawn into lumber. I had the
> stumps removed by a huge bull dozer/front end crawler tractor and burned
or
> buried, at considerable expense I might add. At the time I was raising
show
> quality llamas and wanted this additional ground for them.
>
> There was considerable talk about the roots and stumps harboring a
parasite
> that would become a death warrant to the llamas through a parasite that
> wanted to nest in the stump and roots. Now mind you this was in
conjunction
> with the white tail deer which lived in these areas. Many people back then
> who lived in white tail deer country spent tons of money removing the
cherry
> trees as I did. I don't think that if you don't have any white tail deer
> around the cherry trees are harmless but I certainly would not take any
> chances with the wilting cherry leaves. Japanese Yews will also kill
> camelids so don't trim any and throw the trimmings near where the animals
> can eat them.
>
> Paul Wade
>
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Tish Carpinelli
> Date: 04/22/06 21:04:43
> To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [AlpacaTalk] Cherry trees: how toxic?
>
> My husband and I are new alpaca owners who live in a very wooded area. We
> have cleared a number of what are referred to locally as "swamp cherry"
> trees from the area surrounding the paddocks, but are concerned about some
> of these trees over the property line (about 75 feet) on our neighbor's
land
> Our concern is not for branches falling, but the occasional leaf that may
> stray into the pen area. How bad would it be for an alpaca to injest a
leaf
> or two? And what about dried leaves in the fall? Are they still toxic?
> Thanks in advance for any advice for us newbies!
>
> Jim and Tish Carpinelli
> Jersey Shore Alpacas (aka Chanel #5, Andina, and Cherokee!)
> Green Creek, NJ
>
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>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
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>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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>
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>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
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>
>




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