Deer, small tree damage & Alberta spruce?

[Fuddyduddy1952]

In our yard I've always liked islands with a tree, few bushes, flowers. I like Dwarf Alberta Spruce and they're healthy except a young one that had some brown spots (spider mites?). It's the small one with white arrow pointing to dead area.
I got Monterey insect control, sprayed it and the next day deer ate it to the ground!
I can't understand why?
Also other small bushes & especially fruit trees deer destroy. Even putting steel T posts around with netting doesn't seem to help, neither does expensive spray "Deer Off", it's like garlic and peppermint.
Any ideas are much appreciated!

 

[dodge man]

I’ve got some evergreen bushes the deer eat on every winter also. The spray never helped for me. You can surround them with steel fence posts but that’s not a great answer.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

They'll get some lead if I can catch them at it.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Since others have never been eaten like that apparently that Monterey Insect spray must taste good to deer.

 

[kenmbz]

It must smell good to attract them?

I have some pines surrounded by T-posts to stop the bucks from rubbing. They seem to bypass everything else and make for the smaller pines.

They do actually eat my Asian white pine, weird as they have never eaten any other pines.
They also eat the holly bushes, that must be painful.
They ate my Forsythia down to the ground, of 25, I think 3 or 4 might still be alive.
Up the road, they don't seem to eat the fully grown forsythia.

unpredictable to say the least, sorry about your tree. When I get mites on trees/bushes I use insecticide soap.

 

[bigtiller]

I took about 15' of concrete 5"x5" wire mesh and rolled it into about a 5' diameter circle and set it around this spruce tree. I was going to drive the fence post in to hold it down but never got around to it.

I did this to 4 trees this spring and so far so good.

 

[CliffordK]

In our yard I've always liked islands with a tree, few bushes, flowers. I like Dwarf Alberta Spruce and they're healthy except a young one that had some brown spots (spider mites?). It's the small one with white arrow pointing to dead area.
I got Monterey insect control, sprayed it and the next day deer ate it to the ground!
I can't understand why?
Also other small bushes & especially fruit trees deer destroy. Even putting steel T posts around with netting doesn't seem to help, neither does expensive spray "Deer Off", it's like garlic and peppermint.

How did you apply the insecticide?

On the label, it says "Systemic Insecticide is absorbed through the roots and carried up into the plant"

"Easy to use. Mix in water and pour around the tree/shrub"

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

How did you apply the insecticide?

On the label, it says "Systemic Insecticide is absorbed through the roots and carried up into the plant"

"Easy to use. Mix in water and pour around the tree/shrub"

I applied by directions.

 

[CliffordK]

You had said "Sprayed" in your initial post. The directions seem to indicate pouring on the ground. Although that tree may be difficult to pour stuff on the root ball without getting it on the tree too.

Ok look up the MSDS.

https://www.montereylawngarden.com/product/monterey-once-a-year-insect-control-3-concentrate/?attachment_id=35439&download_file=5ba671708a1fb

1.4% to 1.54% Imidacloprid
0.68% to 0.72% Propylene Glycol
97.5% Mystery Ingredients.

Propylene Glycol is sweet, but not as sweet as Ethylene Glycol.
Imidacloprid is supposed to be bitter and unpleasant.
And the Mystery Ingredients are a Trade Secret. Not that a good chemist couldn't do a reasonable job at isolating them. But we don't know if they could attract the deer. I presume it has a fair amount of water in it.

 

[RayIN]

I'm having small tree damage from rutting bucks now, and in the spring from bucks rubbing velvet from their antlers. I have 43 walnut trees on the

You had said "Sprayed" in your initial post. The directions seem to indicate pouring on the ground. Although that tree may be difficult to pour stuff on the root ball without getting it on the tree too.

Ok look up the MSDS.

https://www.montereylawngarden.com/product/monterey-once-a-year-insect-control-3-concentrate/?attachment_id=35439&download_file=5ba671708a1fb

1.4% to 1.54% Imidacloprid
0.68% to 0.72% Propylene Glycol
97.5% Mystery Ingredients.

Propylene Glycol is sweet, but not as sweet as Ethylene Glycol.
Imidacloprid is supposed to be bitter and unpleasant.
And the Mystery Ingredients are a Trade Secret. Not that a good chemist couldn't do a reasonable job at isolating them. But we don't know if they could attract the deer. I presume it has a fair amount of water in it.

1.5A where the house and garage are located. Any walnut tree shorter than 5' is badly scarred where the bucks knocked all the bark off and broke small limbs. The eventually grow large enough the bucks don't bother them, but where the sap wood is exposed the wood appears to be rotting.

Patent law requires any chemist dealing with a proprietary formula to keep the formula guarded/secret.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

I have deer problems as well. They seem to take periodic likings to my Fraser Fir Christmas trees. Not every year, but often enough to be costly. On my very small tree farm, one year I lost all the new growth on an entire patch of trees. Got some really ugly trees that will likely never be salable. Other years, I've had no problems with them at all. It seems to be dependent on what the other available foods are. Another local Christmas tree operation has had periodic problems with their Noble Fir trees, but not their balsams.

As for buck rubbing, they seem to like the small birches that grow elsewhere and one buck has been raising havoc on a honey locust in my back yard.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

I took about 15' of concrete 5"x5" wire mesh and rolled it into about a 5' diameter circle and set it around this spruce tree. I was going to drive the fence post in to hold it down but never got around to it.

I did this to 4 trees this spring and so far so good.

View attachment 4582803

I use 2x4 wire mesh on my trees, but only because I have beavers in the area in addition to Bambi.

 

[Mudfarmer]

Deer and elk will eat certain evergreens like candy. On our coastal tree farm in Washington State, I can plant Douglas fir seedlings with minimal loss to browse and scraping. Spruce don't seem to be bothered so your insecticide probably tastes salty. Cedar and related seedlings disappear overnight. To plant western red cedar, I grow seedlings in pots to knee high then transplant them inside wire cages - a circle of 2 X 4 inch wire mesh fencing four feet high (27 count to a 100-foot roll) supported by one metal t-post and an opposing wooden stake. As the cedar grows the fence gets raised up to control browsing. The fencing comes off at around 20 feet height and/or 3+ inches DBA (roughly ten years old) to be used over again. Initial cost is about $5 dollars per tree if I can find used t-posts. Ultimately cedar has the highest wood value in the surrounding area and its long life makes it an ideal carbon sequester tree. We have over a thousand in cages vs. about 10,000 free-living Douglas firs. We're experimenting with Sequoias and Redwoods (assisted migration) which will initially go into cages - don't know if the ungulates like those or not - maybe someone with California experience can let me know.

 

[Jaygyver]

The deer will walk by my house and eat the neighbors little garden. My wife has pots of vegetables fairly close to the house but we never were bothered, even the rose's and such. Dog has been gone for a while now but didn't help the neighbors when we both had them. We did build a 10x10 fenced in area for her real garden farther away from the house a year or two ago just to make sure. The neighbor up the road is in more of a wooded area and has a beautiful yard and full of different rose's and plants and he can barely keep them alive. He is a hunter and when I hear a gunshot I kinda think of him. We live out in the country so hearing gun shots isn't that rare.

My Father in-law gave us a small apple tree a few years ago so I planted it in the early spring in our driveway circle which I realized later is near the deer path but went untouched, until mid summer I walked out and something looked strange on the tree, sure enough one of them started to munch it. I also did what @bigtiller did and originally just set it on the ground and it did work great but it was in the "good" grass mowing area and we had to lift it out of the way to mow. So we put some cottage stone in a circle with bark dust and put some t-posts up and zip tied it near the top and left about a foot or two open at the bottom and has worked out great. Don't have to worry about mowing and the wife not debarking it with the weed whacker.

I guess I have an official velvet itching tree in the far field in the wet area as they just love it, all the way down past the bark on the one side. I do find a tree or two when I do a "walk about" that they will use sometimes I guess if they didn't want to wait in line.

 

[LXT]

best deer repellant ive found is vinegar, as an Arborist of 38 years this is what id suggest - most herbicide/pesticides attract deer for some reason, when we spray our utility right of ways the deer seem to always be very active in them right after treatment.

 

[jaxs]

I can't visualize rural life without dogs. Most things think twice before returning to an area where they have been chased by dogs. Notice I said chased, not just barked at until they leave. Deer are faster than many dogs but dogs have more endurance and if trained to stay after deer, will soon close the gap to scare the bejeebers out of it . Many people don't like keeping a large dog just to watch a few trees and a garden. Most terrier breeds are eager to mix-it-up and are surprisingly fast. Even when a large dog is on premises, terriers are good at getting things started.

Between a cell phone, game cam and dog, a pretty effective system can be set up to alert when something comes around. A 12 gauge can seal the deal if conditions allow. Might not get close enough to kill them but a load of #4 will give them something to lick while consider if they want to come back for more. If you show warden damage animals were causing, you are allowed to kill them. To be effective in killing deer at night you need a night vision scoped rifle. My son and grandson each drive through pastures with red lens spotlight and night vision scope to shoot hogs. Again, if you do this, tell the warden in advance and answer any questions he might have.