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deer eating everything in my yard!

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R.R. Bridge Fisher

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I live deep in the Catoctin Mountains of MD, miles of forest all around me and deer up the wazoo. Last fall, winter, and early spring (2013/2014) deer started eating our azaleas until they were striped bare. In the spring some of them tried to send out new shoots but they deer ate them too. All of them eventually died.

 

Someone told us about having great success with Havahart "Deer Away" spray sold at Lowes in a standard 1qt hand-pump sprayer. The label said it's water proof and will last 3 months. So we replanted 3 of the azaleas late last spring and kept them sprayed every couple of months. Here it is ~ 10 months later and the azaleas have not been touched... maybe it works. One fly in the ointment is that I have not seen any deer tracks close to the bushes this entire winter... so maybe they haven't even seen the new plants yet... dunno. But might be worth a try.

The first casualty of War, Politics, and now Covid is the truth.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by R.R. Bridge Fisher View Post



. Does anybody have any bushes and shrubs that the deer wont eat?



Not anymore. 


Boxwoods, forsythia, lilacs, hydrangea, burning bush, Iris, daffodil, andromeda, maybe a couple of others get left alone, for the most part. We had lots of hostas when we moved in. Those are the only thing we bother to spray..couple times a year with "Bobbex." They usually disappear late August because we just forget to spray, and they can wipe out 50 plants in one night. Some small ornamental evergreens seem to get left alone as well.


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Boxwood, holly, several viburnum, beauty bush, hydrangea, lilacs, spirea, forsythia, barberry, winterberry have all been pretty much left alone.

"I have ... put a lump of ice into an equal quantity of water ...  if a little sea salt be added to the water we shall produce a fluid sensibly colder than the ice was in the beginning, which has appeared a curious and puzzling thing to those unacquainted with the general fact."- Joseph Black

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Honestly if you can't thin the herd because of hunting restrictions or neighbors close by then you are limited to planting food they don't like. That's the only option. Google is your friend here.

I've been an arborist for over 30 years and there is no stopping them.

I hunt a property out in the valley where I live and the homeowners winter in FLA and the deer literally eat the Xmas wreath on the front door. The bottom half of the wreath is gone by the time they get home in the spring, totally gone. The misses at the house has been scared to death on several occasions when someone is staring back at her through the window at night. It's the deer eating the bushes in the front bed.

A dog is also a help. Might push um to the neighbors but as mentioned they can mow down every hostsa or tulip in one night.

Delaware Mobile Surffisherman #2062
North Carolina Beach Buggy ASSN # 12382

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Crossbow. But the only problem with one is they don't drop in the spot they are shot. So they may run in a neighbors yard and die. Before they developed the woods all around me I had Deer up the wazoo. My Labrador was the deter ant, I had no problem like the neighbors did. The neighbors the Deer ate everything in sight. I have heard human urine is a deterrent and your plants will love it, believe it or not it adds nutrients to your soil or garden. Try mixing it 20 times water to one part urine and your vegetables will love you for it. Truth no B/S. Lou


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It really depends on the deer and their densities but being in the plant business I have witnessed deer eat everything on the resistant lists with the only exception being boxwood, even that I have seen them test it.

 

Sprays can work okay but you really need to be on top of reapplying, and with a bad winter with lots of snow on the ground even that won't work if the deer get desperate enough.

 

Other than killing every last one of them the only other, bullet proof, good solution is to fence them out.

 

I use electric fence, livestock fence, at my house which is one of the cheaper fences to use because it is just a few strands of wire and if you have lots of trees along the property line you can attach it right to them and save on posts. Some friend have had luck with three strands but I found I need five strands a foot apart.

 

In terms of wreaths deer love fraser fir which is probably what they were going after on the wreath.

Nick
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An old timer told me about how he used to hang pieces of Styrofoam insulation from a string from trees or bushes. About 10 or 15 inch piece hung so when deer browse they bump or hit them in the head or body.

He says they dont like being touched so they avoid feeding on them.

I was going to try it with my apple trees but forgot un the fall. :(

troll #122  <*)))<

 

 

 

 

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