 I, first of all, when it first started happening, thought the tree was sick and just losing all these little tiny stems. But no, it was the squirrels. They couldn't hold on to the stems, so they just let them drop, but they continue to chew them off for the rest of the... Honestly. Well, yeah, they chew them off, and I think that's partly how they get moisture in their body. Sure, that's true, too. Yes, sometimes they'll use them for nesting material, but usually they just drop them on the ground. Yeah. They're just annoying.