Deer and Pine trees

Typhoon · Jun 3, 2004

I just planted 1,400 loblolly pine trees on my 50acre property, and I have a heavy deer population. Im looking for suggestions from people that have experience in this area, how I can keep the deer from eating all of them. I bought some stuff that you spray on the trees that is supposed to make the tree smell and taste bad. Im just looking for some things that people have tried successfully. Thanks!

Gatorboy · Jun 3, 2004

A fence will work best -- the cheapest fencing would be a 7'-8' hi-tensile fence.

You can try putting human hair around each one -- which you can get from any Barber Shop. They make grow tubes you can put around them, but they cost about $2+ a piece.

I planted about 500 pine trees a few years back and sprayed deer repellent on them, but by next spring all but about 20 were nipped off at the tops.

JimR · Jun 3, 2004

Here is what my farmer neighbor does to eliminate the deer from eating his green beans every year. He ran a single strand electric fence around the area set at 2' above the ground. On the fence he hangs aluminum strips at 6 foot intervals. He puts peanut butter on the strips. The deer lick the peanut butter and never go near the area again.

Robert_in_NY · Jun 4, 2004

8' fence is the way to go. You can buy it in 330 foot rolls. The rolls weigh a tad under 400 pounds each and cost between $375- $400 a roll. If you want to keep deer out then put up a fence as it will be a one time thing and you will not have to worry about it again. We have never had a deer jump into or out of our fences. We have sold wire to some locals here who have fenced in their property to keep the deer off their shrubs and one guy fenced in his strawberry field.

SnowRidge · Jun 4, 2004

( I bought some stuff that you spray on the trees that is supposed to make the tree smell and taste bad. )

Is this the stuff you used? We sprayed our trees with it last fall and had no deer predation. Not having predation is not proof that it worked, of course, but we do have a lot of deer here.

We used the mix-it-yourself version, which is much cheaper than the premix. Real nasty to mix up, though. I'm not looking forward to mixing up twice as much for this fall. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

SnowRidge

beenthere · Jun 4, 2004

Would you care to elaborate as to what is "nasty" about mixing this stuff up?

I put on some stuff once that had something to do with 'rotten eggs' and smelled as such. It was difficult to get into a consistency and keep it that way, so it would go through the sprayer. I clogged up my $100 SOLO sprayer and need to get some replacement parts to try to get it working again. And that was without letting the solution set in the sprayer, before cleaning it out. Water didn't seem to do enough though.

Your 'nasty' experience might be helpful to know.

(After spraying, the next year I stapled small white popcorn bags on the leading red oak terminal bud a couple winters and into spring, which helped protect the bud from being nipped. I was impressed how long (through wind, snow, rain, sleet, re-drying) the paper bags lasted. Don't know if they would work for the pine leader, as they may be nipped by deer in the early growing stage. Maybe a 'rolled' sheet of white paper, or wax paper, stapled to protect the leader would help. I assume the leader is the only 'bud' or 'tip' that needs protection. 1500 trees is not bad for individual leader treatment, but 8' fencing would be pretty expensive in comparison. Once the trees are out of deer's reach they wouldn't need protection any more. Most of my red oak are out of reach now, but get browsed pretty heavy, as do the ash. I think the plantation is like a salad smorgasbord for the deer. Get into a row, and just move down the 'table'. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

SnowRidge · Jun 4, 2004

Would you care to elaborate as to what is "nasty" about mixing this stuff up? 

Well, it's made of bloodmeal, which seems to be a term for dry powdered blood--at least that is what it looks like. It doesn't mix well at all, and the odor isn't too pleasant--not awful though.

If foams some when mixing, and takes a lot of stirring to get it all dissolved. I mixed almost five gallons of the stuff, and I think it took nearly an hour.

I used a Solo sprayer too, and that worked fine. I had more trouble cleaning the mixing bucket than I did the sprayer.

SnowRidge

Ole_Hickory · Jun 4, 2004

Use Irish Spring soap,it will do the job.

Repelling Deer with Irish Spring soap.

SnowRidge · Jun 4, 2004

Use Irish Spring soap,it will do the job. 

Won't work. Too hard to wash under their legpits. They just won't hold still. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bird · Jun 4, 2004

( bloodmeal )

The first time I ever heard of bloodmeal was when I was talking to a neighbor about the cottontail rabbits dining on my garden and he said if you spread bloodmeal around the garden, the rabbits won't cross it, so I did. Of course, I used it dry and spread it with one of the little whirlybird broadcast spreaders. Now I'm still not going to say it does work or doesn't, but the rabbits did leave my garden alone, so maybe it did. The only trouble is that it's only good until the next rain that soaks it into the ground, then you have to do another application.