Start early in Spring - Protect your plants
early. Start spraying deer repellent in early Spring and continue through
Fall. Most deer repellents need to be reapplied every 2-3 months at least.
You should reapply as needed to new growth since it is the deer's favorite part.
Put on your repellent before deer start coming around and doing damage. It
is much easier to deter them if they haven't already been eating there.
Change it up - Deer become accustomed to tastes or
smells. Rather than just changing the brand of deer repellent you're
using, identify what the active ingredient is. Then, change the active
ingredient. Some competing brands may use the same active ingredient, yet in
different strengths. Rotate your repellent and ingredients every season.
Multi-Faceted
Approach - When possible, try to affect as many senses of the
deer as possible. Sight, sound, smell, and taste are all vulnerable areas of our
four-legged friends. Targeting two of the senses at the same time will make it
that much more intimidating to the deer. That's why we suggest using a deer
repellent spray or powder in combination with deer resistant plants and maybe
even a temporary fence, a scarecrow, a radio, wireless deer fence, pans, waterspray,or even a
dog.
Vegetables and Fruits or Landscape Plants -Repellent
for shrubs and flowers can contain a bitter ingredient which can't be used on
edible plants. Some repellent also contain latex to help the repellent
stick. Make sure and read the label carefully and only use those repellent
recommended for edible food on your crop plants. To be safe you can make
your own repellent.
This video talks about using multiple strategies to control deer
Deer Resistant Plants-Whenever it is possible, avoid planting trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers that deer prefer to eat. There are many plants that deer would only eat in extreme circumstances. You will greatly cut down on the amount
of repellent your will have to use by choosing resistant plants in the first
place. Deer Resistant Plants
Allow repellent to dry on plants before watering.Don't spray if it is getting ready to rain. Spray on non-windy
days when the temperature will be at least 40 and less than 90
degrees.
Spray Season- Taste repellent work better in colder seasons, and odor
repellent work better in the warm seasons. If your strategy is to let the
deer taste your plant then be repelled, then you would use a taste repellent in
the winter. If you don't want them tasting your price roses at all, then
you will be using an odor repellent which will be working better in the
summer. The best would be a recipe or formulation that works both ways in
combination.