Deer eating hostas and plants - pls suggest repellent method?

Well, they're at it again this year. My newly grown hostas and planted flowers are just stems. I know the culprits 'cause I've seen thmn and photographed them and they all look guilty as sin. Yep, caught in the act! Obviously its too late again this year but how about some tried and true remedies for a deterent for next years growth? And please don't suggest shooting them? The wife thinks their "cute".

Thanks

Reply to
BobMCT
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Hosta and Deer.

I know the problem well. I tried for years, repellents, nets, lights, in short nothing works.

Except a fence:

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I can't believe it's only the 4th year I've had the fence. The difference in the yard is dramatic. The hostas are getting huge and I'm dividing them and spreading them. I actually have flowers bloom now. Besides hostas, deer love to eat flowers. Every year they'd get the yucca, this year I have 8 stalks on the yucca and I'll actually see the flowers.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Electric fence. Multiple strands both sides and above - alternated live and grounded. To reach the hostas will require contact with 2 wires - guaranteeing a good shock - which WILL keep them away.

Reply to
clare

Try 'Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent'.

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It'll smell like hell when first sprayed on the plants but the smell will dissipate in a few minutes. Available at the big box stores and gardening centers. It worked for me.

Reply to
willshak

Some government moron will show up and demand a wildlife bridge or tunnel to bypass your fence allowing all the critters access to your yard. Some fuzzy bunny probably filed a complaint. o_O

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Try 'Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent'.

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It'll smell like hell when first sprayed on the plants but the smell will dissipate in a few minutes. Available at the big box stores and gardening centers. It works for me.

Reply to
willshak

Try 'Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent'.

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It'll smell like hell when first sprayed on the plants but the smell will dissipate in a few minutes. Available at the big box stores and gardening centers. It worked for me.

Reply to
willshak

Your wife is right--they're beautiful creatures. If I had a field, I'd grow flowers just so I could watch the deer.

Others have probably advised you correctly about fences. I just wanted to mention that I've seen repellants on the Havahart site:

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Not sure if their repellants work, but their traps are great. I do volunteer work, rescuing injured animals, and I've used quite a few of them. But best research the repellants or call the company first.

Reply to
VM

Better is DIY. Go the your barber and take some of the hair he sweeps up every day. Spread it around the plants. I know two people doing that with 100% results.

The other is to pee on them. Human urine scent keeps them away too. I'm not sure how often you have to do that.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

With a 10 foot moat of boiling oil on both sides. And claymores. . . and a 100 yard mine field.

Deer eat vegetation. They've got nothing better to do- and the grass is always greener. . . Plant enough for everyone. Or plant stuff deer don't eat. [as much]

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Do fences help with Mexican border criminals, too?

Hosta and Deer.

I know the problem well. I tried for years, repellents, nets, lights, in short nothing works.

Except a fence:

formatting link

I can't believe it's only the 4th year I've had the fence. The difference in the yard is dramatic. The hostas are getting huge and I'm dividing them and spreading them. I actually have flowers bloom now. Besides hostas, deer love to eat flowers. Every year they'd get the yucca, this year I have 8 stalks on the yucca and I'll actually see the flowers.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

After all, the government worker will say, it's not FAIR.

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER The Original Version..

The ant busts his ass in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

The New Liberal Version...

It starts out the same but when winter comes the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, and ABC show up and show pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to film of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be, in a country of such wealth that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Then a representative of the NAAGB (The National Association of Green Bugs) shows up on Night Line and charges the ant with "Green Bias" and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS evening news and tell a concerned Dan Rather That they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the summer, or as Bill refers to it, the "Temperatures Of The 80's".

Finally the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act" RECTRO-ACTIVE to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and having nothing left to pay his Retro-Active taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in....which just happens to be the ant's old house.... crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV; which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, Bill Clinton is standing before a wildly applauding group of Democrats announcing that a new era of "Fairness" has dawned in America.

THE END

Author Jim Quinn, WRRK FM 97 in Pittsburgh

The New Orleans Version...

It starts out the same but when winter comes the shivering grasshopper is loaded on to a bus, and taken to Houston, to live in the Super Dome. He lives in miserable situation, and complains endlessly about his plight. He is released to Dallas, and given a $2,000 debit card, which he promptly spends on grass, greens, and wine and beer. He is found dead in an alley, having died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS evening news and tell a concerned Dan Rather That they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been driven out of his home. At the expense of those who benefited unfairly in New Orleans.

Finally the FEMA and National Guard guys get around to the ant's home. The hard working ant is found to be hoarding, and is handcuffed, and dragged out. The National Guard finds stores of grains, and other foods and water. The grains, food, and water are loaded onto trucks, and taken back to FEMA headquarters. Where the grains sit in a warehouse.

The ant is tried under anti-hoarding laws, and his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper's remains rotting in an alley. The ant is relocated to a FEMA camp in Idaho, where he lives a long, and bitter life. Complaining endlessly about what hard work got him.

========================

THE BRITISH VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.

The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.

Britons are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

The Labour Party, Greenpeace and The Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The BBC, interrupting a Jamaican cultural festival special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome"

Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".

In response to polls, the Labour Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers.

Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the government repossesses his home.

The ant moves to Spain, and starts a successful wine-exporting company.

A Panorama special later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food, though Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it.

Inadequate government funding is blamed, Trevor Phillips is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost £10,000,000.

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Daily Mirror blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.

The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching Britain's multicultural diversity, who promptly set up a marijuana plantation and terrorise the community.

THE END

======================

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER The New Conservative "Neocon" Version...

The ant busts his ass in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter and thus develops severe lazyassiopsia.

A large pharmaceutical, Wasp Meds, Inc., decides a study on lazyassiopisia is needed and says the ant, all the other ants and all the grasshoppers and other insects, have to pay for it. Further research, also funded by the ants, grasshoppers, and other insects (all except the Wasps), reveals a drug that may *possibly* be of benefit to those with lazyassiopsia.

The ants et al. funds the research and trials for the drug.

The High Council of Insects (aka, the Gruberment), says the drug is safe and necessary and grants them a patent.

Wasp Med, Inc., who gives a large amount of the ants et al. money to their friends in the Gruberment, steers clear of all television or other media, except to say that they have a wonder drug for lazyassioposia. They do not tell the other ants et al. that they all have paid for this wonder drug themselves.

The wasps sell the drug for $1,000. It costs them $1 to make it. The make lots and lots of money. Wasp Meds, Inc. ask the Gruberment for more of the ants et al. money to make an even better drug. The Gruberment says, "Sure!"

The ants, the grasshopper and the other insects (except for the wasps), have to work harder and harder for the money they need to support themselves and also give to the Gruberment (who gives a lot of it to Wasp Meds, Inc.).

Then, suddenly, one day a Robin tore open an ant hill and killed and ate the ants inside. The Gruberment decided this could not be allowed. They assembled an army of ants, grasshoppers and other insects to attack the Robins. And they killed 3 of them. 200 ants, 145 grasshoppers, and 300 other insects were killed in the battle. But everyone in the Kingdom of the Ants were very proud.

But then the Gruberment decided that maybe Mice could also come and attack the kingdom of insects. They did not care that Mice did not eat ants or other insects. The Gruberment told all the ants, grasshoppers and other insects that the Mice might come and eat them if they did not kill them all first. The ants, grasshoppers and other insects were very afraid. They had never seen a Mouse, but the Gruberment said they were very dangerous. So another army of insects were sent to Miceraki. The insects killed many, many Mice. They tore up their nests and destroyed the land of Miceraki.

The Gruberment told the ants, grasshoppers and other insects that the High Holy Insect in the Sky saw all the killing and said it was good. The insects were very proud, althought they weren't quite sure why.

The insects fought bravely, and some of them died. They needed food and other things to keep on fighting the Mice.

Back in the Kingdom of the Insects, another company, called Weevilburton, said they would provide everything the army of the insects needed, but it would cost a lot of money. The ants, grasshoppers and other insects had to give the Gruberment more money so it could pay Weevilburton to bring food and other things to the army of insects. Weevilburton took the money, but didn't send the food and other things to the army of the insects. Weevilburton made a lot of money.

Over in Miceraki, the army of the insects had killed almost 40,000 Mice. And almost 1,000 insects had been killed. The Mice didn't understand why the insects wanted to kill them........ and neither did the insects, really.

20 years later, the insects are still in Miceraki fighting the Mice. Neither the Mice or the insects know why. Many have died. The Mice are still angry they were attacked without reason so they have been sending Mice squads into the Kingdom of the Insects to kill insects. The insects are afraid all the time now. The Kingdom of the Insects sends more insects into Miceraki to kill more Mice.

The ants have forgotten all about their crops and laying up supplies. The grasshoppers haven't thought about laughing or dancing or playing for many, many years.

The Weevilburtons lived happily ever after in their nests of gold.

The Ants, Grasshoppers and other insects are still fighting the Mice. The Ants, Grasshoppers, other insects and the Mice are still killing each other.

They still do not know why.

THE END

==============

Some government moron will show up and demand a wildlife bridge or tunnel to bypass your fence allowing all the critters access to your yard. Some fuzzy bunny probably filed a complaint. o_O

TDD

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

My wife used a similar product from Lowe's. You do have to reapply after a rain. It does seem to work. When the Hostas get mature, the deer seem to leave them alone. As someone said, there are greener (read it younger and more tasty plant elsewhere) So you only have to do it for a while.

Reply to
Art Todesco

Worked for me too. Until I had 3 days of rain. Then no hostas. Every summer had at least 3 consecutive days of rain.

Reply to
Dan Espen

I had plenty of mature hostas gobbled up.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Start a deer hound kennel. Spray the plants with a deluted mix of Tabasco Sause (unless the deer are from S Louisiana)

Reply to
NotMe

I live in the woods. Sometimes I have 8-10 deer in the yard. Lots of fawns around now. Deer Off repellant works for me. I reapply once a month or so. I buy the concentrate and apply with a garden sprayer, a good drenching. You can't skimp. Usually the deer won't go near the treated plants, but I've seen one take a nibble of a hosta and then quickly move on.

However, living in the woods there are plenty of other options for them. In more urban areas I think it is harder to dissuade them. On the other hand, you only have to make your stuff less appealing than your neighbors...

Paul F.

Reply to
Paul Franklin

I agree but netting will act like a fence material for deer. They could easily break through it but they won't.

Reply to
Frank

Yes, I tried netting and failed. My neighbor tried netting and failed.

Possibly the moral is, if you use netting do a good job of anchoring it.

Right now, 2 panels in my neighbors fence are down. Sandy victims. I've bridged the gap with netting. The first night the deer must not have known it was there and they ran right through it.

I stapled it back up and it's been working for a month or more. I think when they know it's there they don't want to push through it even though they can.

Reply to
Dan Espen

There is a deer highway between my son's and his neighbor's properties, and the deer love hostas. They seem to have habitual territories to range and to feed; my son's hostas get eaten, but the neighbor seems to be more attractive to the deer. Our town has yearly deer hunts, bow and arrow, to cull deer because they are so numerous and cause a lot of auto accidents.

As for landscaping, it might be easier in the long run to either choose plants that deer don't like, or, perhaps, plant what they like around the perimeter to help keep them out of the yard. Lots of plants are labeled as "not attractive to deer"; on-line lists as well.

I've been worrying about chipmunks eating up my newly planted veg. garden, but since a stray cat visited for a couple of days I haven't seen any chipmunks, which have been very numerous.

Reply to
Norminn

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