A Guide To Protecting Your Shrubs From Hungry Deer This Winter

Posted on November 9th, 2018

Deer control is not something that we often think about throughout the year. As we get later into the fall season, you may notice an increase in the number of deer in your yard or neighborhood. There are three reasons for this increase:

• Mating season starts in October and runs though December. During this time deer are very active as the bucks are chasing the doe
• Hunting season is in full effect. Some deer will move to residential areas where they feel a greater sense of security
• The deer are hungry and are searching for a food source (i.e. your shrubs)

As beautiful as these deer are, they pose a threat to your landscape. Some stats say that a hungry adult deer can eat up to 6lbs of plant material PER DAY! And that is a significant amount of your trees and shrubs.

Thankfully there are ways to protect from deer damage this winter. Here is a quick guide with some tips and tricks to keep the deer away from your trees and shrubs this winter.

Use Deer Repellent

Deer repellents can be effective due to the fact that most deer rely on smell to find the best meal. Repellents come in all sorts of different smells, like rotten egg, dried blood, animal (predator) urine, and hot sauce.

Here are some of the benefits to using a repellent:

• It’s harmless to your trees and shrubs
• After a few days the smell will go away for humans, but will linger for the deer
• Only needs to be applied every 2-3 weeks
• Can prevent other harmful pests as well

Unfortunately there is one major drawback to using a deer repellent. After some time, the deer will get used to the smell, so it is important to rotate the smells often. This can get expensive, and after some time the smells can become ineffective.

Use A Deterrent

As fearless as deer may sometimes seem, they get spooked easily. Here are some deterrents you can use to scare the deer off:

• Light – Deer prefer to search for food late at night, or early in the morning where they are less likely to be seen. A motion sensor light can be very effective at scaring deer away when it’s dark.
• Sound – Deer are very sensitive to sound (and they have huge ears!) They also use their ears to detect danger, so any unknown sound will likely scare them off.
• Physical – Fences, scarecrows, or even CD’s hung from a string can be effective in confusing the deer (they have poor eyesight), and keeping them out of your yard.

Deterrents have the same downfall as repellents, so it is important to move the lights, sounds, or objects around to keep the deer on their toes.

These “Do It Yourself” methods take time and money, and often need to be repeated multiple times to be effective.  Contact the experts at Turf Unlimited we have one of the best deer guards on the market. We apply just before winter begins, and it is effective in preventing deer from doing significant damage to the trees and shrubs you worked so hard on, all winter long.

Give us a call today at 888-649-9919 and let us help you!