Has any body used small bags of moth balls on each bush or tree that you want to protect from the Deer?

Last hear we lost a camellias and a couple of azaleas to the deer and would like to minimize their damage this winter. With the global warming we are expecting a real cold winter this years. ;-)

I use a 6' roll of chicken wire. Roll in tubes about 1-3' in diameter depending on shape of the tree, and weave it together with a stake of some sort (bamboo, steel rod, long skinny branch, etc), and place over the tree. you can stake into ground with tent stakes or just sticks. If the tree is fairly wide or bushy, you may have to wrap wire around the tree and THEN weave close.
Works pretty well if you don't have more than maybe 2 dozen trees to protect. Also, deer are only occasionally bad here, so not sure what happens when they are voracious. I have more of a vole problem here.
You might also still lose lateral growth that sticks out or out the top, but it protects enough tree that the next year the tree might outreach the deer.

Corkball and knuttle, thanks for the replies on this. Regarding mothballs, I've heard good and bad things about them but have not tried them.

The chicken wire seems like a good idea to protect individual small trees. Might have to price out a roll and some of those landscape fabric pins to hold them in place.

What I've found on my property is more damage from the buck rubbing than the browsing. The browsing damages or removes the leaders but is not fatal to the tree, but the buck rubbing usually damages the tree badly and results in tree replacement in the spring.

Thanks

TYG

Looks like a 6ft tall by 50ft long roll of poultry netting (chicken wire) is about $55. If I wrap individual small trees then 50ft might be enough. 5ft tall by 50 long is about $50 I believe.

TYG

for buck rub, it might help to not prune lower branches - at least not until the tree is bigger. The ones I see with damage are usually about 10-15' tall and have a telephone pole for a trunk.

any type of trunk guard or fencing would help as well

None of the trees in the windbreak are pruned by us, only the deer. For small trees like these it makes no real difference since bucks will break off smaller lateral branches to get to the main trunk. I see this damage each year.

TYG

A metal t-post placed next to the trunk will keep deer from rubbing.

Something I came up with that, so far, has worked very well and is simple and inexpensive, is to place steel T-posts around the planting area and then simply string orange nylon line at several different heights-I think we ended up with four layers-from post to post. I know-sounds too easy-and maybe time will tell us it is. But so far, 100% success with this simple idea. I did use the longest T-posts I could find, and we did run a few cross lines over the top as well. In these cases, Thuja occidentalis was the protected species, as deer really pound those things in the winter around here. And no, the line doesn't have to be orange! I only wrote that to indicate that we simply used what was commonly available. One caveat: Make sure the lowest tier of line is quite close to the ground. As I'm sure you know, deer will get down real low to the ground if they have reason to.

+oM

Tom,

Sounds like a good idea. Did you use 6 or 8 ft posts? Those are about $6 each for 8ft or $5 each for 6ft in my area.

Also can you tell me more about this orange nylon line? Is this thin like fishing line or heavy like rope?

Thanks.

What Tom says (3 t posts in a triangle around a tree about 2-3' from the trunk) but I use clear 50 lb test monofilament fishing line instead of nylon (CHEEEEEAP - a couple bucks for a couple hundred yards of the stuff).

100% success so far.

This after two winters in a row of bucks on a rampage killing multiple trees. The fishing line did the trick. I also have used hardware cloth and chicken wire wrapped around tree trunks. This is also effective but requires much more time per tree and is also more expensive when dealing with a bunch of trees.

Thanks everyone for the postings. After reading these replies and reading a few other websites, I realize that the best way to keep deer from damaging trees is with some form of physical barrier. All the sprays, dirty socks, and mothball treatments seem only partly effective in some circumstances and only last a short time.

I did buy some poultry netting today, but I'm wondering if I should return it and go with the heavy fishing line or nylon cord instead. The only issues I could think of with these solutions would be the easy breakage of the line by deer, or breakage after a wet snow or ice storm. The nylon bird netting I used last year worked well until we had some heavy, wet snow and some ice, which pulled the netting down to the ground and froze in place, offering no protection at that point.

The chicken wire would hold up well in snow and ice, and the deer could not break or snap it, but chicken wire would be labor intensive to cut and set in place.

Thanks.

TYG

On the way to work today I heard a story on radio about deer starting to move around more so perfect time for this discussion.

I'm still liking the idea of physical barriers (nylon or wire ) rather than chemicals to keep deer away from plants.

Thanks.

TYG

We use physical barriers like fencing since they offer the best overall protection. However at some point, trees do not lend themselves to barriers very well. At either point, we try to keep the deer out of our yard/gardens all together by using Deer Repellent Packs. They are the easiest solution we have found and are an All-Natural product as well. You can check them out at www.DeerRepellentPacks.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deer Repellent

I've decided to do both methods as a test. I'll use chicken wire on a few trees and strong fishing line of some kind on others. I'm sure the chicken wire will work, but the nylon line sounds easier and faster.

Thanks for the ideas.

TYG

TYG, that is the same configuration I have on my trees. Some with wire cages, some with the posts and fishing line. The only longterm drawback of the wire is that if you make it too tight and the tree being protected gains caliper too quickly, it will infringe on the wire in short order. If you choose to use that method, give the trunk some breathing room :)

I have had a problem with them browsing my fruit bushes and trees. Last year I bought the not-expensive step- in tall stakes and bird netting, combined with some tall decorative flag posts (like plant or bird feeder poles but with one long arm at the top) that I already had; I was able to drape the netting around and over the plants, secured to the posts, with enough distance that the deer couldn't reach the tips or tops. It worked through snow and ice storms and through the summer. My fruit trees have branches at last!

We used whatever T-posts were in the pile, but I did sort for the longer 8-footers. The line we used is, uh...well, i just call it string, but of course, it's thicker than household string. More or less orange baler twine.

I've heard good things about nylon fishing monofilament too. It seems the deer get spooked easily. Surely they could crash through the stuff we put up, but that's not the point, at least so far. It seems all you have to do is spook them a little and they'll look elsewhere for food. Keep in mind, we're doing groupings of trees, not individuals, although more or less the same thing could work there too. Or like JOnd describes....that should work too.

It was important for me to have this be inexpensive, unobtrusive, and quick to put up/tear down. Mind you, this is at my job. The thousands of trees I'm planting at my place up north are 100% free-range the moment they go in the ground. There's something going on up there too, quite unlike here just 60 miles south, whereby the deer don't touch the northern white cedar there....at all. I've spoken here about this in the past....it's absolutely uncanny. Just a few miles away, you can see the browse line, but at my land, they never, and I do mean never, touch the stuff.

Some of the tamaracks we are planting at these work sites end up inside the enclosures too, but just because of their proximity to the cedar we're trying to protect. I'e yet to see browsing on tamarack, although each day is an opportunity to learn something new!

+oM

"What I've found on my property is more damage from the buck rubbing than the browsing."

Will they accept some prominently placed dead trees as a substitute? Decoy them away until the trees are big enough to resist.

I think Tom is exactly correct when he states that all you need to do is spook them. I think they hit the fishing line/twine/rope with their antlers and have a "WTH moment" and quickly move on.

Thanks everyone. Great ideas here. I will be working on the trees this weekend. Some with wire, some with fishing line. I agree that bucks could easily break the line if they try to rub a tree, but I hope the line deters them. The chicken wire is more substantial but also will cost more and take longer to do.

We have lots of pine, spruce, maple, walnut, and other trees in various sizes growing wild in the same area but for whatever reason the deer don't seem interested in rubbing or browsing them. They always seem to go after the trees you just planted. Go figure.

Thanks.

TYG

Something I've used w/apparent success is 2 eggs beaten & mixed w/2 gal water in a pressure-sprayer. Spray liberally on top & bottom of leaves & trunk. Seems to have worked well during the warm months, but never tried it in winter. The smell it leaves on the plants for a week or more is faint but w/a nasty rotten-egg essence.

Thanks beng. I've read about these egg mixes you spray on plants but most people on various websites report mixed results. Some swear by them and others say they don't deter deer at all. In the winter it would be difficult for me to spray this on trees due to very cold temps and possible deep snow.

A physical barrier of some kind would probably take care of this and avoid spraying trees multiple times during the winter.

Thanks for the idea.

TYG

Should mention too that the herbivory protection we're using is at some work projects, and that up at my tree farm, it's no protection of any kind ever. The key there is strength in numbers......we're planting thousands and thousands of trees.

One thing that does seem to happen though: Let's say you've got a favorite spruce or pine, or larch.....one that is just doing perfect and growing exactly the way you like them to. Well, sorry to say, that;s the tree some buck will rub all to smithereens. Never seems to fail, they somehow know which ones are your favorites!

+oM

Just a quick update. I tried the fishing line on several trees and so far (knock on wood) the deer have not bothered those trees. We will see if that lucky streak continues!

I could not protect all the trees with fishing line and do have a casualty. A small white spruce, about 2ft tall, heavily damaged by deer over the last few days. The leader is snapped off and several side branches are broken off. The trunk and roots are very loose in the dirt after the rubbing. This tree will have to be replaced next spring.

I don't understand why bucks choose to rub such small trees like this when there are much bigger trees growing only 20 or 30 feet away with bare trunks. It would seem those larger trees would be better to rub on than a small seedling like this.

Thanks.

TYG

TYG, they rub on whatever means the most to YOU! I have a forest of saplings 50' from a magnolia that some buck destroyed earlier this week. I have adopted a couple stray dogs to hopefully help keep the deer away lol

Good luck the rest of the rut season!

John

"I don't understand why bucks choose to rub such small trees like this when there are much bigger trees growing only 20 or 30 feet away with bare trunks. It would seem those larger trees would be better to rub on than a small seedling like this."

Maybe my imagination, but seems like they have "initiated" every new tree I have put into the ground. They have, so far, not bothered previously rutted trees (but know that they may). One thing that is helpful, obviously, is NOT to limb up trees of species that tend to be low branching (Magnolias, Metasequoia, etc...) They LOVE using Magnolias in the rut because of their soft trunks but the branches of some are so low (virtually to the ground for grandifloras), that the bucks cannot get near them!

Maybe just luck, but all my rutted trees eventually sealed their wounds and went on with living--a useful metaphor for us humans to remember.

Njoasis, thanks for the reply. I have several 6-12 feet tall white spruces with rub marks and missing branches from previous years of rubbing. They survived without any problem, but they never recovered their previous nice shape.Luckily the rubbing is on the back side of the trees so we don't see that damage from our property.

I'll try and post a photo tomorrow when it's light and share with the group. Of course the damaged tree is only a common species white spruce so it's not huge financial loss or a rare cultivar, just a volunteer seedling I was growing.

As time goes on we'll see if the fishing line works or if they break that and go after the other trees.

thanks.

TYG

As promised, here's a photo of the damaged tree. The photo is blurry, but you can see the broken leader and the other branches laying in the mulch.

Although the tree is not dead it will never be a nice looking tree no matter how much care it gets so I'll replace it in the spring.

I have my fingers crossed that the other, larger trees are not damaged in the days and weeks ahead.

TYG