Deer Eating My Arborvitae.

I have 18-7 ft. Arborvitae that were growing very well until this winter, the deer are devouring them. I made up a mixture of 1 gal. water 1/4 cup ea. of Louisiana Hot Sauce, Cayenne Pepper, Chipotle Tobasco Sauce and Elmer glue for a sticker and sprayed it on them. Do you think it will deter the deer, it sure smelled HOT! My question is, if I fertilize those plants weekly will they recover over the summer? As you can see they are literally eating holes in them! These plants used to be twice that wide and thick. Please HELP!
Susan

Here's another pic. When I worked at a local nursery I was told deer won't eat Arborvitae. DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT! The deer around here didn't read that book of rules.
Susan

This message was edited Feb 13, 2008 1:25 PM

Sad to say that they do eat them. They prefer the new spring growth. I use Bone Meal and just sprinkle it over and around my whole yard. Wear a mask because you don't want to inhale it. It is a fertilizer and doesn't harm anything. This works best for me.

This message was edited Feb 13, 2008 4:56 PM

Deer love these plants. Bone meal might work but my dogs love it and think they have a bone somewhere.. I have used deer off and there are a few others. You just need to re aply after the rain. I'm not an expert on regrowth but once that much damage is done It is a slow recovery if any. There is supposedly a kind that they don't eat. I will check and post that kind. We have 300 planted down our driveway and luckily they haven't touched it yet. Fingers crossed,.

Someone I talked to the other day said they don't eat them when they are older. She was very insistant about it. Don't know how much I would rely on that information. I didn't know animals were attracted to Bone Meal. I have never had trouble with dogs in my beds. I just use it very lightly. Nothing concentrated.

Thanks for the tips! I know when I worked at a Feed Store we used to mix blood meal & milorganite fertilizer 50/50 and that seemed to work for people. My only problem with that now is my two Lab pups, that's why I tried this mixture that was recommended by an Extension Agent. I haven't seen the dogs try to chew on the plants and I haven't seen any sign of the deer returning either. So I guess time will tell. When the pups are older they'll sleep outside and I'm sure I won't have to worry about the deer then, but in the mean time I'm hoping this HOT mixture works. I've heard that the Not Tonight Deer really works but is pretty spendy and only comes in a spray bottle. With mine l use a pump sprayer and it works great.
Susan

I heard a long tine ago, that if you reach the dead zone on a Arborvitae they will not recover same as a Juniper, or I may be wrong.

One of my neighbors has a hedge of these plants. The deer did eat them but they have recovered and look really nice. Don't know what he is using. Let us know if your hot spray works well. Might be on to something that would be cheaper to use than commercial stuff.

Willow, I'm sure happy to hear that. I hope ours recover as well. I kind of wish the deer would come back so I can see them at the plants and see if they're still eating on them. They're already so chewed up that I can't tell if they've been back or not. I will definitely keep you posted on the hot spray.
Susan

Well the deer have returned, but I can't tell if they've been eating on the Arborvitae again.
Susan

Susan -

How are the Arborvitae looking?

Weeellll, It's too early to tell. I know the deer have back because they were eating on the alfalfa bales, but couldn't tell if they had eaten on the Arborvitae again. Thanks for asking. l'll keep you posted over the summer.
Susan

Hi Susan! Any hint of spring over there yet? I think I saw you mention somewhere that you'd been over this way recently, but I haven't had a lot of time to post lately and I lost which thread it was on. Did you have a good visit?

Hi Sue! Yeah, a little bit. It's been warmer and the grass under the trees is starting to green up. Yeah, we were up there over the week-end. Yes, we had a good visit, thank you for asking. I posted that we had been there on the nature deficit thread. We're coming back next week-end on the 15th to go to a Blazer game. DH got free tickets from the hospital where he works so we're going with a few of his co-workers. l think it will be fun as they're fun to be with.
Susan

Oh, that sounds like a fun time. I think sports events are more fun if you go with a group.

Thanks. I agree, the last time we got free tickets to a suite, we didn't know anyone else that was there, but got acquainted with them and had fun. This time I think it will be alot more fun since we know everyone.

hi...
weird what those four legged munchers will eat. i have heard and am trying (it has worked so far this year and last year) that deer do not like pungent smelling plants and will avoid that area. i have planted many varieties of lavendar and different kinds of rosemary all over my front and side yards and no deer. my neighbors across the street and around the corner are getting munched on all the time. i also have planted society silver lace garlic, varigatied green and white striped leaves and purple flowers... very smelly! but edible. only the leaves, you dont eat the bulbs. make a wonderful addition to salsa and anything you want garlic in. so far has worked for me!! and you dont have to "reapply" like deer off products lol

I have heard the same thing - especially that you should use lavendar and rosemary - but they have to be pretty near the plants you want to protect. Some people will hang a bar of irish spring soap on a rope from a tree and have found that to work, too.

Well my Arborvitae are starting to look a little better. I fertilized them with Miracle Gro evergreen stakes and the Miracle Gro liquid fertilizer. They always look better when they're green in the summer than the amber tint in the winter. What do you think? I AM seeing new growth on the tops but I'm waiting for the new growth on the sides too. Sure hope they fill out again!
Susan

This pic is a little close to them, but you can get the general idea of how they looked last summer before the deer started eating them.
Susan

I'm very happy to hear that they came back. Lookin' good.

Thank you. Still have a long way to go though.

Adorable children, too!!!!

Thank you!

I live in deer country. In the summer months, I used a product called Deer Scram. It is a blood meal based powder that you put on the ground. It seems to work for about three weeks and then I reapply. I like it because I don't have to spray my plants. I just put it around the parameter of my yard and they stay away.

This winter was sooo bad that I tried a blood meal based product recommended for cold weather called Plantskyyd and you spray it directly on the plants. This works better with snow cover as the ground is covered and the scram wouldn't be as effective. The Plantskyyd is a bloody red spray and lasts for about a month. It is really, really nasty smelling stuff but the odor does not last more than a few days. My dog also liked it, but it made a HUGE difference in deer browsing in our yard. We had no browsing this year and it was the worst winter we've had in decades and the first winter I've sprayed. My neighbors who didn't spray lost plants that the deer never eat. Both products are expensive. We spend about 300 dollars a year to save our 1 acre yard, but would lose much more in lost plants. We have extensive landscape and could not afford to replace the plants and trees that I know they would destroy.

I've also used the rotten egg sprays but they turn my plants brown and wash off with the sprinkler and rain. So I prefer the Deerscram powder that I put on the ground overall. When it rains or the sprinklers hit it, it enhances it instead of weakening it or washing it off. You can get it online at Deerscram.com. I'd like to go into the deer spray business. I'm in the wrong business

Crazy4plants

Thanks, crazy. I'll pass that on to my neighbor, who has some trouble with the deer as she doesn't have a fence. They could get over my fence, but tend not to, I think, because they associate the back yard with the dogs.

We'd love to see pictures of your garden.

Katie,

Yes, just keep these products in mind for future reference. My neighbor finally broke down and bought some because the deer are constantly wiping out her coreopsis. Now they're eating her boxwoods and nest spruces. I think even if you do it when you see them browsing, they get the taste/smell and stay away.

The last photos I took were last June. Heck, right now the yard is just coming on. My hostas are peeping up. So I'll send the link where my last years photos are. The front yard is more generic, but lots of plants. I didn't take pictures of that becuase IMO it isn't that special. Still, I have to spray the mugos and mt. laurels or they'll be gone. Anyway, as you can see, I have a boatload of plants. Youza, I don't know what I was thinking. I just went crazy, hence my name.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/559437019rWOgMW

Crazy

Wasn't your garden supposed to be featured in Sunset sometime-maybe last summer? (I used to lurk in the Garden design forum until I had to cut back my DG time)

They came out and did a photo shoot and story, but they have a more extensive photo crew they use on cover features. They are not doing water features as main features because of the drought in the west, so they could use part of it on a smaller off feature, but they didn't tell me that until after the photo shoot. We talked about a fall type of feature but it really isn't a fall color yard. So it is on hold at the moment for a full water feature until the drought is over. No drought here but there is one in much of the west, I guess. I don't want another shoot unless it will be features in an issue. It was way too much work for a "maybe". It could still show up. But with the drought, it won't be on the cover.

Crazy

Wow. I think I saw your photos last year some time and they were one of the things that compelled me to subscribe to DG . . . Very special!!

Very interesting about the ins and outs of deciding what to feature based on current climatic conditions. I hadn't ever thought that they'd be considering it, but I guess it makes sense.

Oh, I'm so sorry that it didn't work out the way you thought it would! Your garden is so beautiful that it deserves it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the future for you!

CP, your gardens are incredible - I bet there's not a one of us around that wouldn't love to do what you have! Great accomplishment - hope it shows up in the magazine one of these days.

Thanks, Murmur. I appreciate the compliment. I'm helping a neighbor do her yard right now. She has a lot smaller yard but she liked ours so we are looking at plants today. She did her pond/patio this past winter. You never know about the magazine. I was flattered that they were interested in the first place. And then realized afterwards it isn't as simple as that. They look for a story and it has to be P.C . They said they wished I had before pictures showing the sliding off slope of the lot because we changed it to make it very liveable, but I didn't really get many before photos. I wasn't thinking about it. And photos were hard to get because it was just a steep hillside of rock and mud.

Crazy

Here's a pic of my Arborvitae right after the deer had their fiest last winter.

And this is what they look like today! Still look a litte chewed on but looking healthier!

This message was edited Jun 26, 2008 1:44 PM

So they are coming back. That's great!!

Thanks katie, don't you think the whole area looks better with more color?

This message was edited Jun 26, 2008 1:47 PM

Oh yes. I'm so sorry I haven't commented.

It looks beautiful and austere - as though it's resting and recouping - in the winter photos. The spring/summer photos look like a completely different landscape.

That is the beauty of living where you do, don't you think? You can tell when things are sleeping. I still think that you should consider selecting one photo to represent each season and then mounting those photos together on the wall to show Mother Nature's artistry.

I have to agree, and as for not commenting right away don't worry about it, as I have been in and out all day. That's the way I am in the summer time.

I will definitely take your suggestion into great consideration.

Gardener105, Please feel free to send your deer north to chomp on my neighbor's ugly cedar hedges that block my front yard sunlight! ;-)