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Deer problems - how to get rid of Rudolph

Gussie

Gussie

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Apr 20, 2017
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3,700
Anyone have a solution for deer eating your plants? I have lots of rosebushes that were beautiful yesterday. Today they are chomped to pieces. I have tried several sprays but it doesn't last long and it quite expensive considering I have about 30 rosebushes. Ideas?
 
Thanks @Matata. I may try a motion sprinkler. Or just make my entire garden boxwood and vinca, lol.
 
Take my advice with a grain of salt because I am an avid animal lover and shun chemicals or other things that can hurt wildlife. I live in a fringe area so I have every type of critter you can imagine. I can look out my window on any given day and see at least 4 to 10 deer in the yard. My best advice is netting and or fencing. And make sure if you use fencing that you keep it a couple of feet away from your plants. I learned that the hard way when I watched a deer start to eat some of the green been leaves that were poking though our fence. "How cute" I thought. Until the deer proceeded to pull on the vines and rip them from their roots.
 
The sprays are natural and usually made of eggs so they aren't harmful. They stink horribly and I can smell it on me even after a shower! I have had this deer problems for years and have almost given up. There are some plants they won't eat but roses are their favorite and my favorite. :x2
 
Have you tried asking the rose people over on gardenweb? They might have better advice for you.

Most of my yard is deer resistant. I thought I would be smart and plant four beautiful antique roses right up against the house. They wouldn’t come that close....right? Then I noticed that my rose bushes weren’t really growing to size. When I went out to inspect, i saw hoof prints in the soil at the feet of my roses. Those little buggers weren’t afraid of my house at all. I saw a recipe for eggs, Tabasco, beef bullion, and soap, but I’m lazy. I’m going to have my husband install and motion detector sprinkler instead.

Because you have so many roses, I think you will have to do the same. Sprays won’t cut it. Your yard is a smorgasbord for the deer population. There will constantly be new rose growth that will be far too tempting for them.
 
Deer are abundant around here! The wire fences work really well, but it’s not a guarantee. Hope these visuals help a bit.

Around smaller plants we put up fencing like this:
A7C1B211-B0A5-4E06-816E-33228460DC23.jpeg

Around trees we build this kind of structure:
24221B9E-1A75-4D1F-91A2-47B6951929BE.jpeg

This lilac will get eaten and needs a higher fence asap.
DD4BD7D8-D2AB-4DA3-8D72-A5D7BF2CC273.jpeg
 
ceg said:
Anyone have a solution for deer eating your plants? I have lots of rosebushes that were beautiful yesterday. Today they are chomped to pieces. I have tried several sprays but it doesn't last long and it quite expensive considering I have about 30 rosebushes. Ideas?
Click to expand...

Go to almanac.com, many economical and environmentally friendly
“Remedies” :read:
 
rocks said:
Nothing helps....other than a very tall fence.
Click to expand...

Agree. In my last picture above you can see the corner of the fence around our garden. It’s hard to judge from the picture but that’s about a 9’ or 10’ fence.
 
LittleRed said:
Agree. In my last picture above you can see the corner of the fence around our garden. It’s hard to judge from the picture but that’s about a 9’ or 10’ fence.
Click to expand...
We would love an 8 to 10 ft fence.....code doesn't allow anything that tall. The folk that live in the village don't want to restrict the deer. Can't wait till the deer invade the village and wreak havoc there.
 
And then... there was venison for dinner...:whistle::lickout::dance::lol:
 
What about Coyote urine spray?
 
My mom has motion detecting lights around her roses. She found that the deer were mostly nibbling on them at night and the bright light from the flood lights was enough to frighten them into leaving. They also make motion activated sprinklers which might help.
 
the best deterrent is to take up hunting. Once they figure they're on the menu, they scatter...lol
 
LOL agree with @Mamabean and @Arcadian. Back porch hunting doesn't take much effort and spicy deer jerky is the best!
 
sledge said:
LOL agree with @Mamabean and @Arcadian. Back porch hunting doesn't take much effort and spicy deer jerky is the best!
Click to expand...
Ahhhhhhh @sledge I didn’t say that! :lol::lol-2::P2 I let my Bambis eat all my shrubbery..Peter Cottontail does a good job too! I’m a pushover!:lol-2:
 
I mulched with steer manure and I haven’t seen them since. I read that they don’t like beef...LOL. I thought it was worth a try. Roses love the stuff anyway. Two inches of steer manure and you won’t have to fertilize. If you want to know the truth, I just poured piles of manure at their feet. I bought it at lowes and my garden center. I would never use the fresh stuff, it’s too hot.

The rose people like to use horse manure a couple of times per year but I hate going to the stables to get it and it’s full of rocks. Plus, I don’t think it will scare the deer away.

This is my little experiment. LOL. We’ll see if it works.
 
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Have you tried Liquid Fence Deer repellent? You have to spray it every few weeks, but I have found that it helped. Stinks like crazy but it does seem to keep them away, at least for awhile.
 
Mamabean said:
Ahhhhhhh @sledge I didn’t say that! :lol::lol-2::P2 I let my Bambis eat all my shrubbery..Peter Cottontail does a good job too! I’m a pushover!:lol-2:
Click to expand...

LOL oops. Apparently Mrs Sledge rocked my world so hard I called out the wrong name. Should have been @PintoBean. Sorry. :lol:
 
@HouseCat I can testify that roses do love to live on this. It is worth investigating how much is too much - I would only mulch once a year, in late autumn, but for the deer effect you might need more. Fingers crossed!

-

This tread brings to mind a certain houce: I did not have a deer problem, but a wolf problem, KWIM
 
My dog, Hero, just found a huge doe in our back yard. Luckily he didn't jump the new, reinforced, much higher fence around the enclosed front yard to go after her! One of our neighbors in Virginia used to have a Golden Retriever who repeatedly broke through his electric fence to chase deer on our property (and that of other neighbors). (I live in Connecticut, by the way.) She seemed unfazed by his barking, but I didn't want the neighbors to be annoyed by it and he didn't want to come in while she was still there, so I was glad when she wandered back into the woods behind our house! I plant only daffodils now since the deer used to eat all my tulips.

AGBF
 
PS-I probably posted about it in another thread, but Peter Cottontails are no longer safe in my yard. They used to come here at dawn and at dusk, but Hero chased and killed one when he was with the dog walker. Then he wouldn't give it up and she had to call his trainer since I wasn't home and his trainer warned her not to try to take it since it was fresh kill and he might bite her. I came home and was able to part him from it. I used to love bunnies and woodchucks, though. My Newfie, Griffin, was very gentle. He never harmed any wildlife. Now I live with a cold blooded murderer.
 
Mamabean said:
Ahhhhhhh @sledge I didn’t say that! :lol::lol-2::P2 I let my Bambis eat all my shrubbery..Peter Cottontail does a good job too! I’m a pushover!:lol-2:
Click to expand...

...We planted alfalfa for our groundhogs :kiss2:

We back out onto the Hundred Acre Wood (almost a hundred acres of land that can't be developed). We've got deer, rabbits, racoons, turkeys, foxes, hawks of all sorts...

We're pushovers too @Mamabean :mrgreen2:
 
When we lived in Tamworth (rural NSW) we lived in town but in the winter we used to get kangaroos eating all the plants in the front yard, now we live in a large urban area we have a family of possums, huge bats, the occasional snake, native rats etc but nothing really large that eats the plants.
 
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