I really like seeing my colorful tulips in the spring and bright
yellow daylily in the summer. But one major problem that I have
encountered here in the Midwest is what is know as “deer browsing.” Deer
browsing basically means that your landscape becomes a salad bar for
hungry deer.
I think that’s a cute term, and deer themselves are
even cuter, but truthfully, deer feeding is devastating to my expensive
shrubs and perennials.
Now don’t get me wrong, I really like deer.
We see them in the cornfield behind our home nearly everyday. I just don’t
want the deer eating up my plantings in the process.
How to Protect
Your Landscape from Deer Feeding
It is nearly impossible to
completely stop deer damage to your shrubs, especially if their
populations are high; but you can reduce it to the point where it is not
noticeable.
The most obvious way to reduce damage is to find out
what the deer are eating and just don’t put that in your landscape! But I
like to think we can strike a balance between our human love for flowers
and perennials, and the deer’s voracious need to ingest
them.
Another idea is to surround the deer’s favorite plants with
varieties that they don’t regularly feed on. For example, deer love
tulips, but very rarely eat daffodils. So you plant a few tulips within a
large ring of daffodils. This may seem logical, but trust me, it does not
work! Deer are not stupid and they’ll trample those trumpety yellow daffs
just to get to your Darwin Hybrids!
Deer Prevention Using Special
Scents and Repellent
The two types of deer repellents are ‘contact’
repellents and ‘area’ repellents.
Contact repellents are applied
directly to plants, causing them to taste bad. Area repellents are placed
in a problem spot and repel by their foul odor.
Spray or spread
contact repellents on a dry day with temperatures above freezing and
concentrate on smaller plants first. Older, larger trees may be treated
only on their new growth as it is most tender. Treat to a height 6 feet
above the maximum expected snow depth.
Home Remedy Deer
Repellent
A spray of 20 percent whole eggs and 80 percent water is
one of the most effective repellents. To prevent the sprayer from
clogging, remove the screen or white membrane attached to the end before
mixing the eggs. The egg mixture is weather resistant but must be
reapplied in about 30 days. Be prepared, however, as this spray smells
like arse to humans after a few days also! Something about rotting egg
smell doesn’t seem too down-home!
Other home-remedy deer repellents
are not too effective, but they are worth mentioning anyway just for fun.
These include small, fine-mesh bags of human hair (about two handfuls) and
bar soap hung from branches of trees. Replace both soap and hair bags
often to reset the scent. It is also a good idea to mix up the scents by
using different people’s hair and different brands of soap. You have to
keep things fresh! (pun inteneded)
Keep in mind that methods that
work in one area or for one person may not work at all in an area more
highly frequented by deer. You need to constantly try new things and
switch them up.
Deer Fences
Of course, you could put up
fences everywhere and that will pretty much stop the deer, but they have
been known to jump fairly high. In addition, fencing blocks the view of my
tulips and that defeats the purpose.
I hope the ideas above will
help keep your landscape from becoming the next deer buffet stop.
Remember, the key is to try several different methods, and continually
switch them up so keep the deer on their toes; or hoofs, if you
will.
By: Al
Haneson
About the Author:
Don’t forget that you can go to
Deer-Departed.com and read about deer fencing and all types of deer
repellent, mechanical deer repellers and more.
