Tips for Preventing Deer Damage
- kathrynrygg
- May 14
- 2 min read
Members of our Healthy Yards team recently met with the Town of Penfield's Animal Control Officer, Steven Schicker regarding deer in Penfield. We have learned that, in addition to being an annoyance in our own personal gardens and the newly planted native meadows in Shadow Pines, our local farmers cite crop damage from deer as the biggest problem they face.
Officer Schicker shared that increased deer hunting and sterilization programs are not options at this time. Instead, education is key. He pointed to the excellent resources they have on the Town of Penfield's website for deer management. We liked them so much, we copied them for you here.
The following content is from the Town of Penfield
website --> Education/FAQ --> Deer Herd
Many residents have observed Penfield’s large deer herd, especially in mild winters. Evidence of this includes an increase of motor vehicle accidents involving deer, local farmers experiencing crop damage and income loss due to deer, and even your own favorite hostas may be chewed down to a nub thanks to hungry deer.
Why so many deer? The population increase is due in part to recent mild winters, a high birth rate, plenty of available food, and low mortality due to predation and/or hunting.
If you wish to prevent deer from damaging your plants and property, here are a few deer-deterrent methods (commercial and home remedies) for your consideration:
Home remedies:
Place wire fencing around freshly planted trees. Fencing needs to be high enough to keep a deer’s long neck from grabbing new buds and wide enough to keep the deer from the plant—but not so wide that the deer will jump into the enclosure.
Enclose vegetable gardens with a fence no higher than six feet.
Hang very fragrant shaved soap in gardens or hang in a ventilated bag.
Place cracked rotten eggs throughout your garden.
Distribute creosote throughout gardens.
Place lots of ground garlic or garlic paste to gardens or plants.
Hang wind chimes throughout your yard and garden.
Distribute blood meal in areas you wish to protect; deer hate the odor, but so do humans!
Plant deer-resistant plants such as sage, peony, poppy, mock orange, and morning glories to name a few.
Make a mixture of rotten eggs (it helps the mixture stick to plants), water, and Tabasco sauce with high concentrate cayenne pepper and garlic paste. Mix four parts water to one egg and blend with the other ingredients until it is fluid enough to be sprayed, then apply to your plants. Reapply each week and following rain.
If you were to search the Internet for “deer deterrents” you would find close to 1.5 million results! That’s a lot of material to sift through; here are a few top recommended sites to make your quest more efficient:
Comments