Keep Deer Out by Making Your Yard Unattractive to Them
Spring time for deer means the end of a winter of scarce food sources and the opportunity to re-fortify their bodies after for for several months finding only enough food to survive. Unfortunately for many homeowners their well feed lawns, lush gardens and succulent fruit trees are a prime target for the hungry deer.
Deer are becoming more and more common among gardeners’ most destructive pest animal invaders. As deer become bolder and their natural food sources become more scarce the likelihood of finding deer in a suburban lawn or garden has grown. One of the best strategies to protect your lawn and garden from deer damage is to make it a less attractive feeding ground than is your neighbor’s property. Deer are opportunistic and in most instances, the easiest meal is the best meal - if your lawn includes the greatest number of barriers to an easy meal it is likely deer will leave it alone in favor of more convenient lawn.
How do you make your lawn and/or garden the least attractive to deer? Here are some tips:
- Don’t cultivate the plants that deer like to eat - specifically, plant the following sparingly: impatients, hostas, strawberries, English Ivy, peas, beans and lettuce. Also be judicious with trees that bare sweet-smelling fruit like peaches.
- Make your yard uncomfortable to get to - If a deer is hungry enough there is little that it won’t push through to get to a meal, however, in many instances placing plants with spines, sharp leaves and needles in front of entry points to your yard and as a barrier around your garden will be enough to convince deer to look elsewhere for a meal.
- Use deers’ inborn fear of predators to keep them away - Want to make your yard a really uncomfortable place for deer? Turn it into the habitat of the deers’ most feared predator - the coyote. Doing so does not require you to keep a real live coyote in your yard. It only requires that you convince the deer that have a coyote living in your yard. That can be accomplished by utilizing the urine scent of the coyote to stimulate the fear response of the intruding deer. Long-lasting products such as Deer Repellent Packs make it easy to spread the scent of real coyote urine around your yard or garden without muss or fuss.
- Keep your yard and garden cleaned up - Deer often bed down near their food source and that means that areas with tall grass are a convenient place to eat and rest. Keeping your lawn cut and harvesting fruits and vegetables as soon as the ripen will keep your lawn less attractive to deer.
Completely deer proofing your yard can require a sizable investment of time and money. Making the changes necessary to ensure your outdoor area is the least attractive to deer in your neighborhood can be simple and inexpensive.
