My garden phlox that I had got from my first plant swap in May was blooming; I looked out yesterday afternoon late and right away noticed the deer had topped it off for me, along with other flowers in that bed, and had been working on another flower bed and had the nerve to leave a big deposit for me to step in as I come around the corner to that flowerbed. Boy, was I mad! Straight to the garage I march for the Liquid Fence and boy, I sprayed those areas and I continued around front beds till I ran out of LF. After church today, I will be buying more. Still have Bobbex that I could use but hopefully he got a whiff last night and moved on. We see this one lone deer that comes around and we think it is sleeping on the man's overgrown patio 2 doors down. The house is vacant and the current owner has been given notice to clean it up or it will be done by our landscaping contractor and billed.
Bambi, go away!
While sitting outside in the late evening with my lady friends/neighbors to catch a bit of fresh air, we see Mama Bambi with two small baby deer following close behind her. We watched them as they walked between my house and the house next door. Guess I had better go outside when I get back from church to see what flowers they nibbled for their dinner. It was almost dark and it was hard to see but I'm sure Mama Bambi saw us as we were sitting where the street light would have shown on us and we didn't have a camera outside. They would have been gone by the time either one of us came inside for our cameras. I ran out of liquid fence last week so guess it's time to buy more but she has little babies to feed. I'll think of it as she's pruning those flowers back for me. Yea, right!
I used Irish Spring Soap bars this spring and had no deer problems. It protected two flower beds where I never got to see blooms or I watched as they only grazed on the lilly blooms. Also protected a volunteer oak tree that had continually been pruned. Supposedly it is the smell they don't like.
Good Luck!
Silver Spring Maryland area is way overpopulated with white tail deer. There are no preditors save a few unfortunate drivers who encounter them mostly when night driving. Average repair cost per incident $2,000.00. That may be a low average.
Where I live in North Central Pennsylvania we have the same problem but to date I am very lucky to be within a range where hunters harvest enough to thin the herd. That helps for a few years. They have twins and some triplets where there is enough food to support a healthy herd. They bounce right back in short order in spite of the hunting pressure. Without our hunters we would be eaten out of our house and home in no time flat.
Over the years I have tried all the tricks. Most of them last or work for a week to ten days and then they get used to that sound or smell and move right back in for whatever they want or need.
We have an Intercounty Connector highway that is finally being built after studing it for 30 yrs. and the deer are being driven out of their habitat(wooded areas)The deer go where they can find food. I am concentrating on deer resistant and dought tolerent plants next year. Knowing deer will eat anything when they get hungry enough.
I grew up in Greencastle, Pa. We used to hunt the Sillver Springs area. We thought it had to many deer more than fifty years ago. We were harvesters at that time with a whole family and many friends who hunted them. No matter how many of us came to your area our records indicate half of us would harvest one each day we were afield. We really enjoyed your area. Best I can tell from memory there is now a huge shopping area where we used to climb a tree and await for the deer to move about. They at that time were very good deer because of enough area farms to enable them to browse like farm animals.