Well, crap!

The idea is not to make your place the go to place. The bag of corn will make you a target. They talk to each other and spread the word about the corn. Your plants will be collateral damage , desert after the corn.

They've been coming here every night for a while, there's not much garden left to munch. I'll just go pour the deer corn in a nearby clearing in the woods.

The only method providing full and continuous assurance, regardless of varying circumstances including desperation of the animals due to lack of food outside of garden plantings - an annual occurrence in snowy regions - is effectively chosen, installed and maintained deer fencing.

I am a firm believer in reducing the herd. We have so many of them in Central Texas. Feeding deer in neighborhoods is just plain crazy. Lake Travis spends large amounts of money trapping them. I have a tax deduction for shooting them. They have broused some trees baby trees close to extinction. I cage certain trees in my back woods to encourage some species. Flowers that were once common , like (echinacea angustifolia) are none existent in the wild around me.

Yep. Feeding deer corn seeds definitely do not help. Lol. When we lived with my wife's parents while our new house was being built in Spicewood, my father in law would feed a herd of deer with deer corn every day so I started doing that as well. I couldn't believe how many deer would come into the backyard wanting corn seed. We had to stop because of bucks fighting each other for corn seeds. It was a pretty good sized buck with big antler that I was able to get very close for him to eat right out of the bucket that I was holding in my hand. Apparently, someone in Lakeway threw a fit over the trappings around Lakeway in an effort to reduce the numbers of deer so I don't see any nets anywhere this year. Definitely a lot of them around the golf courses especially the black ones.

My neighbors shoot them.

Eeek!

It is not a development. These are 20 acre lots and larger. Some 100 acre lots.

I bought a bird of paradise in early summer..it was perfect..put the pot in my side yard by a banana to add to the "tropical" vibe..a deer must've tried to eat the top leaf..still attached but ripped with a bent stem..had to cut it off because it was laying on top of the leaf below it..the damage was too high to be any other animal..had to be a deer..so annoying..I guess they'll try anything..

Texas deer are hungrier than northeastern deer. I walk the woods around my Pennsylvania cousin's home and those woods and fields are chock full of delectable looking forbes and the deer are fat and huge. The Texas deer are ravenous because our woods and fields do not have many forbs that sustain them compared to up north. Mountain ash Juniper, agarita (like holly, but they browse the young ones.), poisonous texas mountain laurel, bear grass. Gaurra obviate, escarpment black cherry, walnut trees, red oaks, wild honey white honey suckle, madrone are kept well mowed. It is a lucky tree in a bramble that survives . They keep the young plants browsed out. The well watered gardens give a smorgasbord of easy to get to offerings and even oregano and spices get munched.. I sometimes think it is because the watering and fertilizing make the dear resistant plants more palatable. No plants are really safe. But the lists are still a good place to start , just not a list from New Jersey. LOL. Desert mallow is sold as deer resistant, but they learned during the drought of 2011 that they were good and now all their kids know. I have seen deer browse cenizo anfd that is bad. Nandina, vinca minor and pyracantha are invasive in the native woods BECAUSE they are deer resistant. LOL. ,Some Milkweeds gets browsed here on occasion. Our deer are small dog like things that exist on the edge of starvation, multiplying like rabbits and they cluster in the burbs waiting for the new high dollar deer food to be carefully dug in and coddled.. God do they love manafredas. I need to Cage all plantings because they will try anything and rip it out of the ground and then decide they don't like it. . I have seen cactus ripped out. Hell ,I have seen cows eat cactus, thorns and all. I love my salvias and my 7'fence around my vegetable garden.

Feeding them corn only arouses their curiosity for better food. It is like you seeing a McD and deciding to look some more to see if there’s a Ruth Chris’ nearby. And guess what: Daylilies are like RC to the #%*+$&@ deer, ha

For almost 4 years, I've been lucky that no deer ever dared to come on my street from the greenbelt and start eating all the plants. I've seen them lurking around the greenbelt whenever I take my dog for a walk there. Armadillos on the other hand, grr... what a nightmare. Tore up my front and backyard. I found a huge hole under abelia that armadillo had made its home. After filling it in, it proceeds to go around the corner of the house and decides to make a new home under the outdoor A/C unit... another big hole...

As it will ever be as long as wild mammals are allowed access to plantings. Repellent sprays, relying on continued and consistent resistance are half measures. Why leave it up to the animals what happens? Birds and squirrels on fruits and nuts is bad enough, without having it so larger kinds can just saunter or shuffle in at will.

At least it isn't feral hogs. I've heard they are close by though. They multiple very quickly and we can't kill them fast enough.

They are just uphill from you and down towards the river. My neighbor killed 4 300+lbers this last summer. I have a huge skull that I found in my gorge. I think it was lion kill. I looked for the rest of the skeleton but it was not around. One got in my compost heap and flattened it . I used it as the time to turn the pile over.

we live in a deer friendly neighborhood that is prone to flooding we have one of the two highest lots in the subdivision (other lot is next door), we have 4 acres.... during the flooding, it was not uncommon to see over 50 deer in the yard...and they appeared to be eating every single thing in the yard including salvia, tomato plants, sweet green pepper, and citrus it was almost as if they felt they would not have another meal.....they ate all the branches off the tomato plants leaving the main stalk, the tomato plants grew new branches, but were late with the fall production (flooding was the first part of sept for 3 weeks and we've been getting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now the only safe plant was the bay laurel plant (oh and rosemary) the spray liquid fence does work for me, but not during flooding, it took several months of spraying a couple of times a week for it to become effective and gradually the deer just "take the long way around our property"

anyway, i highly recommend the liquid fence spray (deer be gone and deer away have not worked for me) use it a couple of times a week on roses lilies and other things deer really like and after a while, they may avoid your place or garden...

I feel sort of responsible. I voted for the bond to build the new school and now that the land is clear-cut, there is less space for the deer. One evening we were driving by and outside of the tall fencing surrounding the build site was a herd of maybe twenty deer just staring in. I felt that they were wondering what the heck happened to their home.

Most of my plants are growing back, they just stripped the foliage and fresh new stuff is growing back. I moved some stuff to the fenced part of the yard. It's a gamble because the big, sturdy dogs that I just had to adopt will trample over the plants. At least our deer just remove foliage :-) I get excited when they leave droppings as thanks for their meal.

The whitetail deer here are pretty big. Only the really young ones are large dog sized. The does are easily 4 feet tall at their back. I've seen two bucks that were much larger. It's a healthy population.

After these two very wet years, they are larger but nowheres as large as Northeastern deer. My northern friends who visit always are amazed how small they are. The price of progress always hurts.

Once you get down into The Keys, Whitetails become a Dwarf subspecies.

Have you ever heard of deer munching on EEs? This is absolutely ridiculous!

Well, the leaves of EE are eaten by Hawaiians and Chinese Hawaiians. I had an awful time keeping my Tongan neighbors from steeling my EE when they did a luau. If they would eat it, I don't see why the deer wouldn't. I see they went to the young leaves.

Well maybe, deer eat some strange things; but possibly a buck horned it.

R, I guess it could be both

Fencing is effective obviously, but not "the only way" or even the most effective. Culling is better. I know that sounds harsh but if displaced animals are eating things they are known not to eat they are probably starving. And corning them just keeps their numbers high... Kinda like feeding stray cats. I feel bad for the critters I wish we left more of the world for them. But I have tons of deer and I live inside 1604 in San Antonio. Once or twice a week there is a roadkill deer on the busy street right in front of my neighborhood and each one of those traffic accidents could hurt or kill someone .

And wanton weve discussed it before I have a fear of mountain lions I haven't seen a cat myself but I've seen lion signs in places I hike in central and west Texas and friends have caught photos on game cameras. They are out there ...

I had tracks within 25' from where I sleep. I do have a wall and door between me ant the tracks.

bossyvossy..I think they attempted to eat a leaf from my bird of paradise..so why not an elephant ear?..wish there was something in the wild for them..

There's plenty in the wild for them to eat but they just want what is yours too!

Texas law alow's killing deer that are destroying property. The problem is some places forbid discharging a firearm. If you don't want to kill them,bust their rump with #8 shot and it will be a long time before you see them agin.

I'm in city limits and cannot legally discharge the shotgun. They've taken what they wanted and moved on. Plants are going dormant now.

I don't know what he's munching, but this photo was just taken by a neighbor who lives on the next street over and posted to our neighborhood Facebook page.

He's a handsome fellow who strolls around the neighborhood in the day time. The neighbors have named "Bucky".

Nice rack.

As evidence of deer intelligence. We hunted a ranch near San Saba where about 50 acres surrounding ranchers home was off limits. Deer only stared at us while in that pasture but not so if in the war zone. The lady put a cowbell on a buck which she had special attachment. Eventhough he would have been spared (unless hunter didn't believe what rancher said) ,we never once heard his bell outside that small pasture during season,,,,,except during rut. Can you imagine the campfire stories regarding what does thought about a lovesick buck with a bell on his neck? Come and get it was never mentioned.

Funny.

Klem, there are a lot of regulations for shooting wild game out of season.

Here's an overview: Depredation permit