How to keep deer out of your yard

Deer are beautiful animals, but if you have a garden with lots of “deer food,” they are not welcome to visit you any more. Male deer have antlers, and they rub them on the trees to get rid of fuzzy covering and make them sharp. This can be a huge stress for the trees. How then is it possible to prevent deer from damaging your trees and garden? There are several solutions:

• Human Hair

Human hair can repel deer. You can get some from your hairdresser or barber for free. You can simply spread hair on the garden or yard, or put hair in a sock or stocking and hang it in the garden. The scent of multiple humans from hair will keep deer out.

• Hot Pepper Spray

Most mammals are sensitive to the capsaicin compound in hot peppers. You can make hot pepper spray yourself. Put a quart of water in a pot. Put a half cup of dried hot peppers in the same pot. Bring the pot of water and peppers to just barely boiling. Then turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Strain out the peppers and throw them away.  Put the liquid into a spray bottle. Add a few drops of pure dish soap to the liquid as well for stickiness.Spray it on the plants you want to protect from deer. Always wear gloves and eye protection before using this spray. It can burn your skin and eyes if it touches them and it’s painful. Use the spray early morning or in the evening if sprayed in the heat of the day, it may burn the plants. It will also need to be reapplied after rain.

• Plant Deterrents

You can grow plants that deer dislike. Here are some plants they don’t like – ornamental grasses, iris, foxgloves, yucca, herbs and plants with a strong fragrance, such as sage, chives, lemon balm, bee balm, etc. They also dislike plants with thorns, such as purple coneflower.

These are the plants that deer DO like: Plants such as tulips, chrysanthemum, hyacinths, roses, apples, beans, peas, raspberries, strawberries, sweetcorn, hosta, dogwood, fruit trees, Norway maple, yew, and azaleas.

• Deer Repellent

There are many kinds of deer repellents. You could buy some from the garden store or hardware department. You can use these products according to the instructions. You can choose  alternatives to use, such as mothballs, decaying fish heads, blood and bone meal, garlic, fabric softener, etc. Many commercially available deer repellents include things like deodorized fox urine, coyote urine, or wolf urine. What these products have in common are that they are urine of deer predators. This opens up a number of other possible ways to repel deer. You can take your dog out to mark your yard. This will need to be done every few days, or after it rains. If you live in an isolated area, you can mark your own yard on a regular basis.

• Noise, Light, and Barriers

Bright sensor lights that turn on with movement can scare off deer at night. CDs and strips of metallic sheets blowing in the wind can reflect light and make deer uncomfortable. For noise, you can use noisemakers, gas guns, radio noise, whistles, and firecrackers. Barriers should be taller than 8 feet. Deer can jump over up to 4 feet without problems. If the fence is about 6 feet high, you may be able to see deer dangling on the fence, injured or dead.

If you have any inquiries, please give Royal Tree LLC a call at (720) 626-3352. We can go anywhere in Denver, Golden, Westminster, Lakewood, Aurora, Centennial, Littleton, Parker, Greenwood Village and Boulder to help with your trees.