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My husband has our children trained to look for deer
when we go for a drive. Watching these fascinating animals graze is enjoyable —
unless it’s your rhododendrons they’re eating. The degree of deer damage on a property may vary from
year to year, depending on deer-population density, the availability of
food, and weather. Deer generally feed more on landscape plantings in the
winter; during the summer, other sources of foods, such as crops, are
available. So what can a home gardener who must coexist with
deer do to limit the damage they inflict? First, keep things in perspective. If you live in a
rural area, near the edge of a woods or a farm field, your plants will
likely incur some deer damage, and eliminating it is almost impossible. You
will have to decide how much damage you can tolerate. Damage caused by deer is easy to identify; deer often
leave a jagged or torn surface on a stem, whereas rabbits leave a clean-cut
surface usually at a 45 degree angle. Home gardeners have a few options for limiting
damage, including plant selection, fencing, and repellents. It is difficult
to change the animals’ feeding habits, so if deer have damaged your
plants before they will likely do it again. There is no quick, easy
solution; it’s important to apply the appropriate controls before the
damage begins. Although deer will graze on just about any plant,
they are less partial to some, including barberry, common boxwood, American
holly, paper birch, Colorado blue spruce, flowering dogwood, forsythia,
inkberry, Norway spruce, lilac, and beautybush. Favorites of the deer,
requiring protection, include apple, cherry, plum, rhododendron, azalea,
yew, hybrid tea roses, and arborvitae. (These are not exhaustive lists.)
With fencing, you can exclude deer from an area and
protect valued plants, but it’ll need to be at least 6 feet higher
than the maximum expected snow depth to do the job. Decide how big of an
area you want to fence — the whole back yard, an area that contains
your prized plants, or just individual young trees. Although electric
fencing does provide protection, it’s not recommended for urban areas
or subdivisions.
Young trees are a prime target for grazing and for
bucks using their antlers to mark their territory. Make sure that young
trees are fenced in before deer mating season begins. Repellents help keep deer from eating prized plants.
To prevent deer from establishing a feeding pattern, they need to be
applied before deer begin grazing or at the first sign of damage.
Repellents may help reduce damage, but they will not eliminate it. If deer
are hungry and food sources are limited, repellents may not work. There two types of repellants — contact and
area. A contact repellant, applied directly to a plant during the dormant
period, makes the plant taste bad. Area repellants are applied near a
plant, and the odor repels the deer. Apply repellants on a dry day with above-freezing
temperatures, and be sure to treat trees and shrubs to 6 feet above the
ground. Keep in mind that some repellents may need to be reapplied after a
rain, and some are only effective for a short period. Brands of repellants
include Deer-Away, Hinder, Tankage, and Tree Guard. Be sure to follow all
label directions. Several studies and personal testimonials have shown
that bars of soap hung in trees have some effectiveness. Each bar protects
about a square yard. Drill a hole in the bar, run a string through the
hole, and hang up the soap. Some gardeners swear by Irish Spring, but
others find inexpensive brands equally effective. For more information on ways to limit damage to your
plants, go to the eXtension Web page on deer-damage management:
www.extension.org/pages/Deer.
Jennifer Fishburn is a horticulture educator with the
University of Illinois Extension Sangamon-Menard Unit. Contact her at
fishburn@uiuc.edu.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2007.
