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Deer deterrent for new trees

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DBQWhitetailFanatic

New Member
Question.....Does anyone have suggestions for deer deterrent on freshly planted trees, shrubs and food plots? My family and I have ordered several hundred and will be planting on our family farm/hunting grounds in the next week or so and we want to ensure we have a high rate of survival for these young trees. Want to keep deer and other wildlife away until the trees and shrubs have a chance to take root and adapt.

We are planting several kinds of oak trees, apple trees, plumb trees along with the following pheasants forever food plots: covey rise, blizzard buster, early longtail milo, winter shield, roster booster and several brassicas mixes n turnips.

Any help/advice is much appreciated.

Dan in Dubuque Co.
 
Yeah, we have done that in the past with mixed results. Wanted to hear what things have worked for others improving their properties hunting habitat.

We'll do the human hair again for sure.
 
Irish spring has worked for me in my yard. I have some pines planted and just hang half a bar from them in the fall.
 
A little searching on line and you can easily find unwrapped, perfumed motel size bars of soap in bulk. Hang them with little cable ties, 1 per tree/bush. Works well and much cheaper than replacing trees. They even last a couple years.
 
Soap bars, deer off sprays, etc. can work....but you must give constant attention, especially September-December.....so you are effectively driving deer off your property with foreign scents and working the area. Would you want someone to hang dryer sheets on the fenceline of your best bedding area or food plot ? Scents won't hold back hungry deer in the middle of January and February, if food is scrace enough.

Sounds like you have already purchased many trees....wish you the best. The best advice- plant less, and high fence them with cages for the first 5-10 years.
 
Only sure fire way,,tall,,wide,,,fencing.One scent tnat does work,,and is cheap. Take smelly,,sweaty,,tee-shirts you or your family has worked in. Hang then on the trees. I tell you, this works. Deer tolerate some human scent in the air, throughout the year. But concentrated sweaty shirts,they distain!
 
nothing works scent wise . just big cages .and ive had success with plantra tubes
You ever look out the window in the middle of the night and deer are eating the over hanging tips of the tree you just planted next to the house and caged and sprayed deer repellant on?
you find something let me know ive planted hundreds of bare root trees and shrubs and they eat everything.
 
My girlfriends family runs a Christmas tree farm and they hang bars of soap off the new plantings. Seems to work well except for the fall when the bucks rub on them. Not much you can do about that :grin:
 
Bars of soap? Seriously? I have deer browsing on the trees and plantings in my yard and can't find anything to work. How many bars does it? Regardless this will be priceless to explain to my neighbors when they see dozens of bars of soap hanging randomly around my landscaping.
 
5 foot high cages is the only sure way to protect trees. Way better to plant fewer and take care of those, than to plant 1000's and helplessly watch them get destroyed. Nothing is more rewarding, or more frustrating, than planting trees.
 
Goggle Plantskydd. I trade out some labor helping a landowner to hunt his property. It's a hobby of his to plant trees. He's tried several different ways of keeping deer from working his trees over as he has a high population of deer using the property. We've installed the plastic shields and tried other spray on repellants and none seem to work near as good as the Plantskydd. In the 3 years I've worked on helping him with the trees we just started using the Plantskydd last fall. While I was hunting the deer never seemed to avoid the areas I had sprayed the trees until this past winter while the trees were sprayed with the Plantskydd. Main trails that lead right through the middle of the trees became ghost town trails. The deer would really avoid the sprayed areas going wide but still using the food sources. I was skeptical of any repellants but he's the boss. Man was I wrong. I'm a believer now. Hope this helps and good luck
 
muddy said:
Bars of soap? Seriously? I have deer browsing on the trees and plantings in my yard and can't find anything to work. How many bars does it? Regardless this will be priceless to explain to my neighbors when they see dozens of bars of soap hanging randomly around my landscaping.
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I'm with you on this! I have tried everything as well. Some of it works for a short time. The ONLY thing that keeps them out is a fence of some sort. If you are planting real small trees, you better get a cage / tube on them. I planted 200 small maples a couple of years ago and before I could get something on them, they were gone! I am talking one night!!! Liquid deer fence works but as soon as there is new growth they will eat it. Have to keep spraying.

Good luck!
 
This setup has been 100% effective thus far for me. VERY high browse pressure in my area and I cannot get anything to live without fencing/tubing.

Dwarf Chinkapin Oak

 
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