My husband and I moved to a new house last fall and when I was replanting my daylilies from my previous house I noticed that deer love to munch them and quite a few other plants.  Since the house has been here for 30 years they have become quite used to it and even look in the windows as they are emptying the bird feeders.  Any help or suggestions that anyone has on keeping them out of my yard would be greatly appreciated!  I can't believe I'm even asking how to deter deer but I never realized the problem they can be!  I always thought they were so pretty....now I still think they are pretty but even prettier at a distance!


Thanks so much for any help!!

Country Cottage

hi c.c.
i too live out where deer thrive. they eat every thing. there are only a few succesful ways to inhibit them in my experience. if you have dogs that you can trust to not run off, they are good deterents to deer and other critters that eat your plants.
fence. i have to fence everything i plant. trees, shrubs, vegetables...everything. fortunately the deer around here are lazy so they havent jumped my four foot fences. but they can jump an eight foot fence if they think the other side is safe for landing.
when we moved out to the country i knew they would be a problem and vowed that i would not fight them. but every thing i plant is wrapped in wire to give them a chance to grow. once someone asked me why i had all my newly planted trees enclosed in fencing. i jokingly said, "well thats to keep them from wandering off at night".
but its really to help them survive the deer.
commercial products may delay deer damage but i never met a deer who couldnt get used to any spray or odor if it was hungry enough. a physical barrier is the most effective.
i still think they are beautiful and intriguing creatures even as i watch them eat my plants. good luck!

Hi c.c.,

Terry's right. Dogs are the best deterant. We have fences, but they can jump almost anything. Herds of deer go across the pastures and sometimes the smaller deer will not be able to clear the fences and take them down. Once I found a fawn that got trapped in the fence and left behind. It was so cute. Was an absolute pet. When I went out of town the girl that was feeding the horses and supposed to take care of the fawn didn't notice that one of the wounds from the fence was infected and the baby died. They have a place the park service has to take care of the deer that foolish people tame. They can't servive when they quit being afraid.

Anyway, we put a couple of dogs out in rotation. That way they don't stray. If we left them out all the time they might run off. We had three of our young dogs out last week. Apparently, one of our lovely neighbors were able to catch two of them. Twenty-four hours later two bedraggled pups managed to get back across the small river that runs across our property. We don't let any young dogs out now without us watching them. Aren't neighbors wonderful? Before we started leaving dogs out that would bite, one of them actually dug up the bulbs that were growing next to our front steps. I decided that the reason they allow people to carry hand guns is so that you can protect your property from the neighbors. I told you we live in rural TN.

Good luck!
Betty2

Terry gave you good advice, a good fence is the only sure way. There are a variety of repellents ,most of which will probably work for awhile. you could also try things like playing a radio at night, motion detector sprinklers that deliver a spray of water. Some people claim that spreading Milorganite around their plants helps to deter deer and rabbits. If you use a variety of methods and keep changing things up, they MAY decide your yard is to much trouble to browse in . Planting plants that deer usually don't bother near or in front of your daylilies may also help. Unfortunately you have your work cut out for you.

My husband and I have tried many a thing to keep the deer out of our garden. We even have an electric fence, which they jump over. What finally stopped them for about 1 1/2 years was we built a little red barn for raising chickens in. Well they have now gotten used to it and are back. We even went so far as to string electric fencing across the garden so they jumped into an electrical shock. Worked for a little while and then they learned how to bob and weave around that too. I think the key is to constantly change things on them so they can't get used to any one thing. One year I hung mountain dew cans with cigarette butts in it all around my garden. I couldn't stand to get anywhere near them, lol!!! But I had to change them every time it rained, lol! Another year we used up an old "OLD SPICE" deodorant one and old worn tee shirt and hung it in the garden, again I couldn't stand to get anywhere near it, YUCK! And it lasted through a few rains too, lol! Not sure what we will try this year. I think I'll have to plug in the electric fence again, we haven't had to use it the last 2 summers, but I am seeing deer tracks going into the garden this winter, so I know they will be a problem this summer.
Good Luck!!

Deer are afraid of anything new. However, once they get used to the change, they quickly overcome the fear factor.

A couple of suggestions:
While deer can jump an 8 foot vertical fence, you can keep them away from your plants or garden by laying the fencing (we used chicken wire) flat on the ground and securing it with landscape pins. This allows the grass to grow up through the fencing. The landscape pins held the fencing down so that we could mow the grass growing through the fencing.

Deer will walk up to the fence, but are startled by anything that tries to "grab" their hooves. Since the deer cannot see the fencing, they will not cross it. They will not jump it because they do not know how far it extends.

Unfortunately, this horizontal fence will do nothing about bunnies, raccoons, or armadillos.

Another thing that works is carnivore droppings. Especially from large cats, i.e. lions, bobcats, tigers etc. If you have a zoo, wild animal farm or circus nearby, they will usually give you the droppings at no charge. Dog droppings will not work, however wolf droppings will. Basically, any large animal that is a natural predator to deer will keep them away.

Although expensive, we were able to purchase dried coyote droppings at a nearby nursery. This worked to control rats that were nesting under the hood (and chewing the ignition wiring) of our car last winter.

Frank
Life Member
Zone 8

It is easy to tell a weed from a valuable plant...
Just give a tug.
If is comes out easily, it is a valuable plant!

Frank. good comment. Those who are serious about controlling deer will build a high fence with a horizontal extension. the deer are wary of jumping too far without knowing for sure what they might land on. Your suggestion seems to make this idea a lot simpler. I've attached a picture of the most common effective barrier for deer to show what I mean. I would also have a higher regular fence on the inner side of the extension.

Frank, you have solved my worse problem and didn't know it!  I had a turn signal out and went to have it changed.  When opened, there was a rat's nest in there!  And the entire wiring harness was destroyed!  Needless to say I have been beside myself not knowing what to do.  Thanks for the post even if I didn't request it!

One more thing on fencing. Depending on how much fence you need, deer and most other animals will not jump over a solid fence if they can't see what is on the other side. You can put opaque fabric on a wire fence or build a solid plank wooden fence. Got to be high enough that they can't stand up on their hind legs and look over it.

Terry, your yard sounds like mine. I have to put wire fencing around every tree, shrub or flower to keep the rabbits and ground squirrels out. Luckily no deer. I use a lot of ½ inch hardware cloth and 1 inch poultry wire. But we do have mustangs (feral horses) in the area and luckily they haven't found my house yet. If they ever do it will be 4 foot 4 strand barbed wire fence time. (Can't use a dog to chase the horses as that would be a Federal felony.)

Frank, I have a couple coyotes that use my driveway as their personal bathroom.  (Dang them.)  And I can tell you it has no effect on the local rabbits, ground squirrels, or other rodents.  Even the stupid coyote sitting in my yard taking a rest doesn't affect them.  They just sit and stare at one another.  If the coyote chases then they run, otherwise they have a gentleman's agreement to just ignore one another.  I think these desert critters are as crazy as I am. 

Yep...I took the cages down from the holly trees thinking that they were big enough that the deer wouldn't destroy them entirely. Now I have eight foot plants that are stripped bare up to six feet with tuffs of leaves left at the top. Funny, they didn't eat all the rhododendron this year...which is usually stripped bare...the holly must have been more tasty. I left some garden leeks in the ground over the winter and since it was unusually mild they survived...the deer ate them. Deer are not supposed to like members of the onion family.
I come home from work at night to find a herd of deer in my driveway. Top count 15 at a time. They seem indignant that I would like to get from the road to my house without having to run over deer.
I've said to my wife...one day we''ll come home and find them sitting on our sofa watching TV!