One day your prized landscape plants look great, and the next day they’re either half eaten or all gone!  And thanks to the increase in deer populations, our yards have become salad bowls for these 4 legged eating machines.  So what’s a homeowner to do? 

Obviously, planting deer resistant plants is one step in the right direction, but for existing plants or specimen plants you want to have in your landscape, what can you do?  Well, there are several deer repellents on the market for you to try, but from my experience, the best two are Liquid Fence, and DeerScram.

Liquid Fence is a spray repellent that smells and tastes bad to deer, has a pretty long life on the plant, it has a rain resistant period, environmentally safe, and 100% guaranteed.

DeerScram is a granular repellent, which is sprinkled around the plants, and it’s the smell that repels the deer.  But it doesn’t smell bad to you, just to the deer.  It’s rain resistant, all organic, can be used around anything in the garden, and again, it’s guaranteed to work keeping the deer away from your plants.

As in all cases, be sure to read the label before using either of these products, and I do suggest using both interchangeably in your garden.  And yes, they will need to be reapplied on a regular basis.

By the way, do you know how to determine whether the damage to your plants is from deer or rodents?  Rodent damage (rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, etc.) will look like someone cut the plants with a pair of scissors or pruners.  Deer damage, on the other hand, will appear torn or pulled off.  They only have teeth on the bottom, and semi pull / tear off what they want to eat.  And if you’re still not sure, simply water soil around the plants and look for tracks.  And another dead giveaway it’s deer…deer poop!   It gives them away every time.