Deer in the Backyard

On this cold February day, most of us humans just want to veg out and stay indoors. However, for wildlife, it is just another day and they need to eat another meal. There were 4 deer wandering through my suburban backyard the other day. All does and probably ready to have babies in a little while to add to the problem. Oh, well...

In cold, snowy winters like this, deer and other critters such as meadow mice or voles inflict a lot of damage on landscape plants. Grass and other low growing plants are covered so these herbivores need to move to less desirable but still available food sources. In our landscapes, that means that they start to chew on buds and bark of trees and shrubs.

During the growing season, most of us have to rely on repellants to keep the deer from eating our hostas and tulip buds. Which one to use? Take your choice. Over the years, I have heard people swear by or swear at all the commercially available products and most of the home remedies too.

Repellants are meant to make potential foods either smell or taste bad. The key with all of them is that to do their job, they must be present on the plant and in a concentration such that they in fact continue to smell or taste bad to the deer.

Thus, the absolute key to using repellants is that they must be reapplied persistently throughout the season. They all wear out or wash off over time. If you just let them go, they loose their effectiveness and the deer begin to feed again. This is especially true if you are dealing with a large herd of hungry deer in your area.

Unfortunately, repellants also wear off during the winter months. Therefore, it might be valuable to go out on the next warm day (above 40-50 degrees) and give those plants another spray.

Comments

[Sean McNamara]

DeerPro Winter Animal Repellent will protect woody ornamental evergreens all winter from deer browse damage. One spray in the fall protects all winter.