Bambi ain’t nearly so cute when he’s munching your prized roses.
No wonder folks who are tired of the cloven-hoofed chowhounds call them “rats on stilts.”
And if it seems as if you’re shooing more deer than ever away from your flowerbeds these days, you’re not imagining it: “It’s very possible that we may have as many white-tailed deer as when Columbus came … or we could have more,” says Stephen Vantassel, webmaster for the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (White-tailed deer, one of several species of North American deer, can be found nearly across the contiguous United States.)
That makes for real problems: A West Virginia University survey (PDF file) a few years ago found that deer cost each of the state’s urban homeholders about $62 annually in damage to plants, vehicles and the like. And money isn’t the only concern deer bring; they’ve been implicated in the spread of Lyme disease, and they have been known to contract rabies, although rarely.
Got deer? Here’s what you can do to, ahem, buck that trend and make your lawn and garden look less like a free buffet.
Repellents
Several kinds of deer repellents can be sprayed on plants and crops. However, repellents don’t spell permanent relief, says Scott Craven, extension wildlife specialist with the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
 | Delicious deer dishes |
Why not? One reason is that they wear off or wash off. Also, their effectiveness depends on how hungry the deer are, Vantassel says. “Sometimes people have unfair expectations, and that’s because they forget that even a child that’s starving will eat his broccoli,” Vantassel says.
That said, here’s what the experts recommend:
- Go fatty. Repellents that contain fatty acids, such as Hinder Deer & Rabbit Repellent, seem to work best, Vantassel says. They can be sprayed directly onto fruit trees and vegetable crops, according to the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management.
- Think stinky. Repellents that use putrescent whole-egg solids, such as Deer-Away Big Game Repellent, have been “reported in field studies to be 85% to 100% effective,” the center says. The repellent is registered for use on ornamental and Christmas trees and on fruit trees prior to flowering.
- Make things hot and spicy. Sprays such as Miller’s Hot Sauce that contain capsaicin, the element in peppers that makes them hot, can dissuade deer. Note: It should be used only at certain times on certain plants; you don’t want to bite into a ferociously spicy peach. These types of repellents usually require application of an “adhesive” to help them stick and withstand the elements, such as Wilt-Pruf or Vapor Gard.
- Try this fungicide. The bad-tasting fungicide Thiram is sold in several products, such as Bonide Deer & Rabbit Repellent and Nott Chew-Not. It’s usually used on dormant trees and shrubs (and because it doesn’t last long it’s usually paired up with one of the adhesives, above).
- Lather up. Some studies have shown that dangling store-bought bars of soap can reduce deer damage somewhat. Each bar protects an area of only about one yard around it, however. Drill a hole in the bars and suspend them with a cord. Any cheap soap will do.
- Should you try hair? For ages, dangling bags of human hair has been a folk cure for deer; supposedly the smell scares them off. But it doesn’t consistently repel them, experts say.
You can try dangling bags on outer branches of trees, no more than three feet apart. For larger areas, place them in a perimeter around the area to be guarded. Replace the hair monthly throughout the growing season. But don’t expect them alone to do the trick; use them as just one weapon in your arsenal, experts recommend.
As with anything, make sure you follow directions, and reapply as needed. And don’t expect repellent to keep away every last deer. “When you have 100 deer per square mile, nothing’s going to work,” Vantassel says. “Half of my job is trying to convince the public that there is no magic.”
