How to stop deer from chewing my shrubs

I am very angry today. I noticed the deer have chewed the beautiful leaves off my multi-shaded euonymus shrubs. Is there anything I can spray on them to deter the deer? Also, will the leaves grow back? Or do I need to replace the entire bush? Last question is this. They did not eat my camellias which are planted right next to the euonymus bushes. Are euonymus bushes more susceptible to being eaten by deer? Thanks for any help.

Liquid Fence works for us but it has to be reapplied according to the directions. Provided the deer didn't eat every leaf they should grow. Obviously they don't care for the Camellias as much as the Euonymus.

Here they taste many things (Caladium, Hydrangeas, lilies) but prefer Hosta Plantaginea above all other hostas and daylily buds.

The old rule is deer will eat anything when they're hungry.

They tend to avoid fuzzy, gray, as well as strongly scented, as in herbs.

Umgowa, the person that figures out a foolproof deterent for deer will become a hero and a millionaire....grin

I did a search once, and came up with over 2 thousand sites....best of luck to you.

We currently use Liquid Fence and it works well but like any other deer repellant, you have to respray after a rain..One of the horticulturist at a nursery center in Va. swears by Bobbex..Maybe you can find it at your local nursery center or Home Depot or Lowe's. Might also check the company's website and find out who sells it for them.

Sometimes we eat the deer and sometimes they eat us. We must have a couple committees of one taking care of business! Last year at this time we had them chewing on us every night. This year I have not seen one for whatever reasons. I hope my friends and neighbors continue to take individual and private action. Crossbows are very quiet. Nothing will effectively stop them eating your place half to death except population control or ten foot fences.

Umgowa here are a few tips from my gardening book that might help

1. Repel deer by hanging fresh

Bounce dryer sheets from fence posts,shrubs or trees. The oleander a natural repellent keeps deer away. Misting with water ever so often will revive the scent.

2. Push a nail through a bar of Dial Soap, tie a loop of waxed floss through the hole and hang from trees around crops. Deer mistake the smell of deodorant soap for humans and flee.

3. Staple small trash bags to tomato stakes. The bags flapping in the breeze frighten deer away.

4. Saturate cotton balls with peppermint oil put in panty hose and hang around, the smell of mint repels deer.

5. And last if that doesn't work hang slinkys around. The shiny reflection of the metal frightens away deer.

From my personal experience the above tips will each work for about a week each. They have to cover the pages of a book like that with something. Herd reduction is the only long term management that absolutely works other than fencing which sometimes works.

It's rifle season in PA.

Yes there are two fine 150 - 175 lb. venison hanging in our apple tree and we are informed a third one is slowly making its way to the truck. Our hunters have a banner year going. We shall have a lot of that juicy fine venison this winter. If the weather stays down below fourty five we will cure them for a week or more before butchering. We have cooler space for three but maybe not for three this large. We are set up to do all the butchering and related skills.

Thanks for all the helpful information. I thought I might share some info I found out. I went to Home Depot and they recommended a product called "Deer Off". It is rain proof and weather resistant. You just need to re-apply every 3 months. It smells absolutely horrible when you put it on, but it quiets down and eventually after a day or two you can't smell it at all. But the deer can and they apparently hate it. I haven't seen any deer on my property since I used the stuff.

In spring time you will have to use it more often to protect the new growth but if it works for you then it's wonderful.

You are correct about protecting the new growth. Now we find ourselves with a very expensive and time wasting program to maintain. What one misses with this type of a program renders the missed items all that much more desirable for the deer.

I checked into a good set up for my property to spray this product. It would cost a pile of money for a commercial sprayer and would require the use of ten gallons of spray materials every five days in the spring. The back pack sprayer was the most inexpensive. It weighed thirty pounds and held three gallons of spray material. That is another thirty pounds. Complete coverage up nine feet is the Rx. The garden would still have to be fenced. I don't believe spring lettuce laced with any spray of this nature would be very attractive.

The bottom line is that each deer is going to eat about a half bushel of brouse.....slightly more or less.... each twenty four hour period. If you really want to understand this statement take a pair of nippers out there and nip off a shoe box full of new spring growth. By the time the shoe box is full you have the minimum brouse a single deer will eat in one twenty four hour period. They are eating machine number two. A ground hog is even worse and eating machine number one.

Wow. I found the last two entries amazing to read. Obviously you folks live in the country. I thought I would just share the scope of my issue living in the north suburbs of Atlanta. There are green belts here, thus giving the deer places to live, but to spray my plants I just take a small 32 ounce spray bottle of Deer Off, then I squeeze my fingers on the sprayer a few times to cover my shrubs with the stuff and I'm done. That's it. 5 minutes tops. In 3 months I'll do it again.

New growth on perennials, lilies, etc. and any growth on annuals wouldn't be protected if we did it for just five minutes every three months.

Sorry...........I live in an ordinary surburb on the edge of a medium sized city. We have a sizable creek on both the East and the West of our home. The river they feed is just a mile away. Our deer problem is not near the problem of a similar location in the huge Philadelphia surburbs or the surburbs of Northern Virginia near Washington DC. Within a mile of my home are million dollar homes with twenty thousand dollar landscaping packages literally eaten and damaged beyond repair. The effective range of a deer is normally a mile or two.

About fifteen years ago my partner and I owned and ran a restoration school just North of Atlanta. We enjoyed your country. At that time we saw a few deer in our travels but nothing like what we live with now in the Northeast. After one gets away from the Atlanta beltways your suburbs look somewhat like ours. It was pretty country to me.

The preditors are few. More get hit on the beltways than any other damage to the herds. We can still hunt some edge farms creek and river flats and woodlots. That helps but is not near enough population control. Millions used to hunt. Now it is down to thousands for various reasons. That is also a part of the problem.

Now for the explosive comment. Many folks feed them and make partial pets out of them. They get named. Those folks are now in the majority and think they are cute. The few that garden are not near enough to support the herds so the problem just grows. Two more of my neighbors have given up gardening just this year. I have cut down my apple trees. This helps only me. It likely made things worse for others that still have apples.

The only thing that might eventually controll the herd is a disease that is quite effective in killing off large numbers in some nearby states.

Now I will shut up. This is enough for anyone who wishes to know the deer truths in areas similar to ours.

They cost the local hard working farmers over five million dollars a year. When I recently went to our favorite local farmstand there was no broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and other crops because of the deer.

Are you allowed to kill it and donate it to the food bank? i volunteer at the food bank and we get a lot of deer and noose meets. Belle

Thanks for the "New growth" comment . . . but after talking to the folks at Home Depot and reading the container, I don't think I'm going to have to worry about new growth and stay on top of it . . Why? The reason is that this Deer Off stuff apparently projects a bad odor that is only detectably to certain animals like deer. Even though we can't smell it, the deer can from a ways off. . . . . like the dog whistles that only dogs can hear. If the deer get within 5 feet of any bush with any of this stuff sprayed on it, they can smell it, become repelled, and they won't go near it. If I'm missing something here, please tell me, because I really don't want them ruining any more of my shrubbery.

In order to harvest wild animals for crop damage one must have at least ten acres of some cash crop growing in Pennsylvania. My township has a no shooting set of rules that make it impossible to legally shoot where I live on smaller properties or within three hundred yards of an occupied building. Furthermore in order to donate a wild animal the giver must "pay" to have it butchered in a licenced shop. Presently that is an average of $50.00 per deer. Still the hunters donate quite a few to the soup kitchens. The butcher shop and the receiver of the donation must keep records for a number of years. It is not free anymore!

Umgowa, another tidbit that I just learned is to collect hair clippings from your local barber and place in something like ladies stocking and put in areas of heavy deer traffic. The deer do not like human scent and it will last up to three months. Don't know if it will work but might be worth a try.

I use human hair in my compost and at one point scattered it about the open garden rows. As I mentioned above it worked for about a week. The birds loved it for nesting materials. It is very slow to decompose. I have seen hair for three years following placement on the mulch and fall tilling.

For the best effect it should be unwashed hair. Many barbers around here do not wash men's hair before it's cut so that's the best. As doc said it takes about a week and then the deer ignore it.

I think I have tried everything that might have sounded like it might work while working to the conclusion that only lead poison, disease or serious fencing will work. I even tried so called deer chasing frequency devises as a test gardener. When I provided the supplier with photographic proof of a deer licking molasses off his machine while operating I was dismissed as a test gardener. LOL

Now I hear some idiot is convinced that birth control injections will solve the problem. Yea I say unto ye....It will work at least as good as it has for the human race. The game commission and all of the hunters can't shoot enough to control the population. I can't wait to see where this cocky mainia idea goes.

Approving venison for restrurant use and selling licences to market hunters might work if the season were open 24/7 365.

I fully agree.

This message was edited Dec 12, 2009 9:23 AM