Deer repellents???
 

Woke up this morning to find our gardens - particularly hostas and annuals, torn apart from a deer. We only have a couple of small gardens, so it wouldn't be that onerous to spray them with a repellent of some sort.

Does anyone have any recommendations on particular repellents or products you've found to be effective? Or, other techniques - sprinklers with photo eyes, audible alarms, whatever?

We're going to focus more on deer resistant plants in the future but for our little areas now, a repellant could be an easy solution - if they actually work and if they aren't easily washed off in the rain.

What has worked for you?

Hosta and annuals are major delicacies for deer. Your garden center probably sells coyote urine that purports to keep deer and others away. Some say you can just DIY, but you have to repeat every time it rains.
One really effective solution is to lay chicken wire on the ground--deer won't walk on it. You can let grass grow over it to visually disguise it for humans. Properly flattened, you should be able to drive a lawn mower over it. Some repellants can be poisonous to small creatures, mice and chipmunks for example, which are then harmful to the birds who feed on the mice.
I have some variegated Hosta outside the fenced portion of the yard. The deer don't touch it until September, and it grows back every spring. Otherwise, I keep everything inside the fence.

On the island my wife has been using a product called "Liquid Fence" I call it Liquid Ass because it smells nasty but it works great! Actually it was the only thing we found that actually worked!! Its all natural non poisonous. You just spray it on the plants you don't want eaten. The deer eventually get the message and stay away. It smells terrible when spraying but the smell does subside. FYI...Hosta's are tenderloin to a deer!!

Good Luck!

Dan

Liquid Fence does nothing for us. Especially if they are hungry.
For us, it is a waste of money.

https://bonide.com/product/go-away-d...repellent-rtu/

All of them now use various repellents.
Sometimes odor or a barrier is not enough and unfortunately the deer will eat the cayenne - lesson quickly learned.

Before this we would use Foxglove... the digitalis in them would make the deer's heart race - unpleasant - but it could also hurt the unintended, sometimes permanently.

I used netting over my hostas last year and it worked great. But I forgot to remove the netting and this year the hostas got trapped in the netting as they grew and I was unable to cut off all the netting. Otherwise, netting is simple and effective.

That is a barrier method.
Usually the cheapest format.

Thanks all. Dan, my wife went on a mission after your post and came back with the Liquid Fence. I was just sent on a mission by my wife, to spray it on all plants. I then sent her on a mission to close all the windows because it sure does have a strong and unpleasant odor. However, your experience and what it says on the container gives me hope that the smell will fade once the plants dry.

Two other questions:
- How often does your wife reapply it?
- Where do you purchase it? We paid about $50.00 for a 40 ounce container of concentrate. I've already used half of it in one application. That's not going to be sustainable if I have to reapply this stuff every week or after it rains.

She told me she sprays approximately every week for a couple weeks at first, then tapers to once a month after. She pays $36.00 for 40 ounces on Amazon. Make sure to mix 12 ounces of concentrate to 1 gallon of water. She uses a garden sprayer and it lasts quite a while!

Yes definitely close the windows when spraying. The smell does fade quickly thank God!

Good luck!

Dan

The smell should be a rotten egg.
Different formulas are a bit different, but that seems to be the common ingredient... that an oil that helps it adhere to the plant surface.

Reapplication varies, but usually about once a week for a couple weeks and then every month.

Yup, the main ingredient is “putrified eggs”! I actually have a camera setup in my yard and watch them at night. They won’t touch the plants after they have been sprayed! I wouldn’t either!;)

Dan

Damn! They just got some of my hostas last night. I had put wire fencing around the perimeter of the garden and deer repellent in the Spring. They sneak in at night little buggers! So, today, everything on the edge of the garden got a good dose of "Deer and Rabbit Eco-Friendly Repellent" made by Everguard. Hope it helps :look:

The rotten egg is a olfactory stimuli; but you will also generally see the addition of either garlic, cayenne, white pepper, etc... these can also affect the mucus lining in their throats should they sample the coated plants.

My spouse advises me that deer hate the smell of marigolds and planting them around the hostas works great without the undesirable side effects of certain other options.

motion lights also scare them away at night


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Milorganite
 

Is a fertilizer, and deer hate it. I put it on my hostas and lilies at home, and flowers at the lake and they leave it all alone! I forgot earlier this summer and they ate the geraniums, but they are growing back now that I spread the Milorganite.

Lights don’t work on island deer. It only helps them see what they are eating! They are pretty tenacious!

Dan

liquid fence
 

We have tons of rabbits and they are fun to watch and loved. Problem is they love to eat the plants and flowers. I can walk up to them asking them to stop and go eat the other edibles available and they just move a few feet away.
Bought Liquid Fence (garlic, onion, egg solids) and really stinks. So far so good.
Cocoa bean shells are said to deter deer and it only takes a few disbursed about.
_______________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

After a few applications, I've found the deer will become conditioned to leave your plants alone and you can stop the application. The stuff is pricey.

I hate to cover my plants because I like looking at them. That's why they're their.

Foreground: Large hostas eaten down to the last leaf.

Background: The culprit

Attachment 17644

Liquid Fence Let Down
 

Well Winnilyme,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but for the first time in a dozen years or so, liquid fence has let us down! For the past couple nights we have had one deer come in to both my yard and my neighbors yard and completely devastate our plantings. This occurred AFTER spraying liquid fence! I watched this one deer in my security cameras chow on our plants completely unaffected by the spray. In years past, the deer were completely deterred by the spray. Not sure why this one deer thinks it’s salad dressing!!:eek:

I do hope it works for you as it has for us for many years and maybe it’s just this one insane deer who likes it! :confused:

Dan

Gulp!

Actually, so far so good here. Seems to be working. We’ve used two weekly applications and the deer came back for a few nibbles several days after the first one. It/they left though with no major damage.

My ‘gulp’ is because I just placed an order for two more 40 ounce containers from Amazon. The only thing worse than our gardens getting destroyed by deer would be those gardens being destroyed along with my $125 investment in putrified egg cocktails.

Keeping my fingers crossed that our deer aren’t as hungry as the ones on Welch.

The deer on Bear are very bold. We have 6 that spend their time behind us all summer. They will walk right up to you, in fact one of them ate out of my neighbor's daughter's hand last week.

Over the winter they wiped out the lower sections of our green giant arborvitae, which is a deer-resistant species. If they manage to survive the summer (the bushes, that is) we are going to use snow fence for the winter season.

As you can see, they aren't very tall!:D

But they can jump very high.

Codeman, that's what they did to ours during the winter.

I will be trying the marigolds next year, around my berry bushes as well as the hostas.

Bought a bottle of liquid fence to try. Only one word to describe that….Nasty:laugh:

Spawn of Satan
 

LOL! Told ya!! :D:laugh:

We probably have a half a dozen deer right now on Welch and there is only one zombie deer who still eats through the liquid fence. All the other deer don't even try! They take one sniff and walk away...

This Zombie deer who I call "Spawn of Satan" is driving my wife crazy! It actually walks out on my breakwater to eat the flower baskets my wife has out there lining it! The liquid fence is nothing but salad dressing to it! This deer is definitely not right in the head!!:eek::eek:

Dan

My advice…don’t put it on when wind is blowing! I think I got as much on me as the plants. Now my dog is intrigued by it. I hope she doesn’t roll in it :eek:

Maybe it has some damage to its olfactory that causes less of a reaction to the smell?