Oh Deer! 6 Tips to Help Protect Your Yard/Garden
Seeing deer in the yard can be exciting, unless that yard has a garden. If that is the case, then you might be more worried about them messing up your flowers and/or vegetables. If you aren’t sure how to get rid of the deer, you’re in luck. Best Pest Control has 6 tips on how to deter deer from your garden.
Deer, if hungry or curious enough, will eat almost anything. No plants are guaranteed to repel deer, but it is worth a shot! Plants that deer dislike the most include thorny plants and those with fuzzy or leathery leaves, not including rose bushes. They also are known to not like ornamental grasses, irises, foxgloves, yucca, and herbs and plants with a strong fragrance, such as sage, chives, lemon balm, bee balm, etc. However, this all depends on the season, the plant, the weather and the availability of other foods. Deer tend to eat more in the fall to help build up fat to get them through the harsh winter months. As herbivores though, deer like to eat plants, fruits, acorns and nuts, which are easy to find in the summer, especially in your yard!
2. Repel the Deer
Deer often need encouragement to stay away. You can repel deer from feeding in your garden with certain repellents that have either a bad smell or taste. Rotten eggs and garlic are both very effective in keeping deer out of gardens. You can create a concoction out of these ingredients and apply to the deer affected areas using a spray bottle. However, it works best when there aren’t a lot of deer and the damage is very little. It is important to remember that the longer the deer have been feeding in your garden, the harder it is to deter them with repellents.
3. Avoid Feeding Deer
If you feed deer, this encourages them to come back to your yard as they now see it as a resource for food. This is not only bad for you and your neighbors, but it is also dangerous for the deer. If deer are coming to your neighborhood to feed, it will bring them within close range of vehicles. This could lead to a potential collision when they hang around the side of the road or cross it.
4. Install Fencing
Deer can easily jump over anything lower than four feet high and a six-foot fence raises the chance of entangling and injuring it, so an eight-foot high fence is recommended for keeping deer out. You could also install a four-foot fence and add chicken wire that extends 2 feet out at a 45-degree angle. This method is an easy and effective way to keep deer and other critters out of your yard or garden, but could be quite expensive to install.
If you have a dog, train them to mark their territory around your garden. Dogs are a natural predator of deer and because of this they will avoid them. This will work best when your dog is medium to large size and is free to roam your yard and/or garden. If you choose this method, they will need to remark their territory every few days and/or after it rains.
6. Use Noise or Light
There are many different devices that deter deer by scaring them off. At night, bright motion sensor light can scare off deer, while shiny objects that reflect light work well during the day. If you need to use noise to deter deer, radio noise, whistles and even firecrackers can cause deer to run. Sprinklers are also effective for a short time. Although if you use these methods regularly, the deer will become use the noise and continue to enter your garden.
Get Rid of Deer Using Best Pest Control
Not only can we help keep deer out of your yard and/or garden, we are here for all your Lake of the Ozarks pest control needs! Our expert team is trained to “get rid” of those annoying bugs and critters. Give us a call at 573-348-1600 for a free estimate. At Best Pest Control, we not only get rid of pests, we keep them out!
Comments
Post a Comment