Garden & Rosebush Deer Repellent

Solutions

• Dried blood should be available at your local garden store. It is a byproduct of cattle beef processing. It comes in a powdered form and is effective for discouraging deer and rabbits from eating your plants. Deer don't like eggs. Egg repellent is easy to make and fairly inexpensive. Small batches are easy to make.

Egg Repellent

• According to "Preventing Deer From Eating Roses" on ThriftyFun.com this is a good repellent recipe: Beat 18 eggs using an electric mixer or large whisk. Put the eggs into a large bucket. Add water slowly to the eggs as you stir. Mix thoroughly and then strain liquid. Spray solution on places where you want to discourage deer from eating plants. Reapply this solution after heavy rains. This solution will start to smell on your plants, especially in heat. Clean out your solution sprayer thoroughly, and often. When the egg solution dries it can gum up your sprayer.

Predator Urine

• Effective repellents include those that mimic the urine of a mountain lion, one of the deer's most common and feared predators next to bears and wolves (see Resources). It only works if local deer have encountered the specific predator. Thus mountain lion urine is the most effective--bears and wolves are not as commonly found on our landscapes.

Prevention/Solution

• Fencing, noisemakers, bobbing lights, flapping tinsel and motion detectors are all methods that when used in combination can become a complete solution. Experiment and find a method that repels deer away from your roses.

Fencing

• Effective deer fences are about 7 feet high. Many gardeners will also tie tin foil along the top wire. Some farmers cheat by setting up very tall poles, tacking fencing wire around the base of the poles, then making a nice high barbed wire strand at the topmost level, all the way around. If deer sense the height of the top wire, they are much less likely to try to jump through.