Deer eating Hibiscus

[Deedee]

I have several Hibiscus trees and plants. Some of these are 5 or 6 years old. We always take them down to the basement and put them in front of a french door for the winter. After all this care we started having a problem with something eating our Hibiscus. They looked like someone pruned them with a weed wacker. My guess was deer. Sure enough my husband was looking out the window early one morning and there stood two big bucks eating my Hibiscus. I had New Guinea Impatiens and ivy planted in the pots under the Hibiscus trees. The impatiens were eaten all the way down. I bought new plants this year and have been waiting to see them bloom and they were tearing them up too. My husband ran out of the house to chase them away and they waited until he was almost on top of them before they left. Does antone know of a way to keep the deer away?

[Charlie]

We've not faced this problem with deer but from what I've heard a very tall fence is the only foolproof way. Someone else told me they successfully used one of the odor type repellants but that it only worked if he saturated the area all around where he wanted protection and repeated the application every couple of weeks during summer. I don't know if that would work for your deer or not.

I've always been intrigued with the sprinkler system that senses movement that then turns on the sprinklers which is supposed to startle the deer or whatever animal intruder comes near. It may or may not work, it just sounds like a good response to give an invading deer. 

Charlie

[Louis]

Hello everyone,
i have had many problems with deer, since i live in a very rural area.  the only thing i have found to repel them is a product called Millorganie, its a dry fertilizer made from human waste. the deer hate the smell of it, however, for us, there is no odor. 

i took the liberty of pasting an article on it as a deer repellent. see here:

Louis

Milorganite as a Deer Repellent
  Milorganite
was found to successfully repel deer in Washington DC and protect flowers and plants. Plus it is a great organic fertilizer and will not harm the environment.

Last Fall we planted five large beds of yellow and purple pansies. Our neighbors, especially the four legged variety, liked them a lot. The very next morning, we found evidence that white tailed deer had a feast on our plants. Our local gardening expert had a big smile on his face as he told us that deer in the Washington DC area just love pansies.

After our garden expert got control of himself, I asked him what he would recommend to persuade the deer to leave the pansies alone.

I told him that another salesman had suggested deer scram, but he told me to try Milorganite. He explained that it had a very strong odor that deer don't like. He also suggested that I should spread it in a wide band around the plants that I was trying to protect.

He was certainly correct about the strong odor of the Milorganite. I spread it around the beds in a 24-inch band and also in the narrow space in our yard where I had seen deer before. It seems to have worked. The pansies were spared after the first attack.

Our hosta's in the back yard did not fair so well this summer. They had beautiful purple flowers one day and the next they were gone. Our deer friends were back. So we applied some Milorganite back there.

We planted abut 30 creeping petunias in our front yard to replace the pansies. This time we applied the Milorganite and our petunias were spared. We actually saw three deer right across the street so we know they are still around. We're keeping the Milorganite handy. In case you are wondering, none of our guests have complained about the odor from the Milorganite.

What's Milorganite
Milorganite is an organic nitrogen fertilizer. I has the following qualities:

Non-Burning – foolproof application. No need to water in! Use in the hottest weather!
Slow Release– provides uniform growth and a well-established root system,
Bag Label Rich in Iron– Provides a rich green color and maintains it over periods of heat stress and
Environmentally friendly– Resists leaching.

[Cindy]

Thanks, Louis. We don't have a deer problem around here but the question comes up fairly often and I knew of no solutions other than a very high fence.

Charlie