how do I keep the deers from destroying my perennials in the winter ?

Question

I have covered them with netting and even chicken wire but they some how manage to pull it off and eat my bushes to the ground. I almost lost a couple since they were broken and eaten down so low. I didn't get any blooms on them this year. I've tried store style deterients but they don't work either.

Answer 1

I'm just wandering if you can use moth-balls it works on rabbits and squrialls, we had peppers one year and the rabbits we're eating them down to nubs, one old farmer would laugh at me when I talked about it at a resturant we have where we live, finally, I asked him what he thought was so funny, this is what he told me," Ya got any moth-balls in your house anywheres, I told him I thought I did,, Well spread them around ya garden, "I promise you no more rabbits, shute,you won't have anymore of the fuzzy things climbing in your trees either.they won't get near the garden. so I went to the store and bought a box of moth-balls and did what he told me to do, and those rabbits never did come back to visit my garden again, so why not try it, I'd think the smell keeps them away, even moles. It won't harm the animals or the garden or grass.

Answer 2

Three suggestions: 1. Fill the foot section of some old pantyhose with human hair clippings collected from hairbrushes or your local barbershop, or use your dog's fur after a good brushing. Tie up the ends, and hang up the nylons where the deer tend to snack. This will lose its scent after a while and need to be replaced every four or five days.

2. Soak several rags in white vinegar and hang them on stakes around your plants. Resoak the rags every 7 to 10 days.

3. Tallow-based soap works especially well if you can find some. Hang the soap in its wrapper or in a cloth bag to keep it from dissolving too fast. Hang it from a stake, not a branch. Replace when gone.

Answer 3

I have used something called "Liquid Fence" as a perimeter repellent and it seems to be effective. It smells bad while it is wet but I can't really smell it after it dries. One of my gardening friends swears by applications of processed sewage-sludge, which is a dry powder called "Milorganite" and marketed as a fertilizer. It only smells faintly like sewage to me but apparently the deer have a better sense of smell and stay away. I have also heard that you can string strands of light string or dental floss up off the ground between trees as an invisible but feel-able fence to discourage deer from entering your area. Really fragrant bars of soap hung up is supposed to work; we drilled holes in hotel-sized soap and hung them up, in the wrappers so they would last, in the trees, which worked just for the individual tree it was hung on and so that has a limited range. Unfortunately deer are quite habitual and so will tend to come back to the same place over and over. Once you discourage them though, then maybe they will *NOT* come back to the same place for awhile. Concentrate on keeping them out of the perimeter of your property. Some perennials they particularly prefer and it may be very, very difficult to discourage them. I notice that the patterns of deer movement through my area vary from season to season and one year I get a lot of damage and maybe they don't find it at all next year. It really depends also on what natural foods are available for them and at what time. They came in one year when spring was late coming, and they were just starving for green, and ate my whole crop of creeping phlox out of a greenhouse in like, two nights, since there was nothing else green out there. Do you have any place remote from the plants you want to protect that you could plant something cheaply, maybe by seed, that they like, and that you don't care about? Maybe you could attract them away from the good stuff and hope you don't attract more *OF* them. I try to plant more stuff they dont like. I am surprised the chicken wire didn't stop them better; but I guess when you are hungry......... :)

Answer 4

Fox or coyote urine- get it at the feed store (or old time garden center) used in conjunction with blood meal sprinkled on and around the plants ($3 a bag from the garden center). Its a deterent, not a deer proofing. Strips of cotton cloths that will blow in the wind will also deter the deer- helps if they carry a stron human odor.

Answer 5

Dried blood powder obtained through natural horticulture supply sites. Dog hair obtained free from the groomers. Moth balls don't always work. Disposable pie plates hung by string from stakes will blow in the breeze and scare them away.

Answer 6

moth balls work great. I used to have problems with deer eating my plants as well, but putting moth balls out in the flower beds helped, the plants were left alone.

Answer 7

feed them or plant something thats care -free and grows fast just for them-i would think well fed deer wouldnt be as desperate

Answer 8

get motion lights that will scare them when the light comes on
or get a dog

Answer 9

Why not just enjoy seeing them? They are beautifuil\

Answer 10

Get a shot gun.