Deer can be a real pain especially when your neighbours like to feed them, I find that they will test most things at least once, they ate my Virginia creeper to the ground one winter but have not touched it since. I've used spray on deer repellent that seems to work but must be reapplied if it rains. Very gross stuff if you get a wiff of it or get it on yourself. Bobbex is the brand that I have. Mule deer and White tail deer have different diets. One of your pictures was White tailed deer. My parents keep deer out of the yard with dogs but that doesn't work with the dogs in the house or with small dogs and hungry deer. I've seen deer put the run on a dog. Deer make excellent sausage.

Yeah, I am leaning towards sausage.

I live in town and only get deer in the winter when they're hungry and brave. Mine must be special too because they ate the dead leaves and stems off my peonies and they're not supposed to eat peonies.

They'll eat almost anything if they're hungry enough, as you've discovered.

I bought Bobbex this year to ward off the hares (they went crazy this year, eating everything in sight that wasn't poisonous), worked great.

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This post was edited by njoasis on Fri, Oct 31, 14 at 21:39

My deer are also special...they often eat things, even in spring and fall when there are other things to eat, that they supposedly don't like. They will ruin absolutely ANY tree I plant if it doesn't have a fence around it(unless it is mature), it is pretty ridiculous. They haven't touched the Ohio Buckeye I put in, though. I think they are poisonous though, so maybe they are smart enough to know. They even ruin our Colorado Spruce sometimes! They like peeling the bark and breaking a bunch of branches off, leaving them on the ground. Tsk tsk. Maybe they are just rubbing their heads or something.

Anyway, I have absolutely no fond feelings towards deer. They've cost me way too much money and ruined years of work in just minutes. I do still get a kick out of watching mule deer bounding away from me like a bunch of ninnies on pogo sticks. Yes, guys...you look like morons with big white butts. ;)

We built a massive enclosed garden area for the veggie garden and fruit trees. We figured with the high #'s of deer we have, it would be a total waste of money to even try having a garden otherwise. It is 8 ft tall metal game fence..very permanent with big posts. They ain't gettin' in there! We do get the occasional jackrabbit that gets in and needs to be eradicated, though..

This post was edited by weeper on Fri, Oct 31, 14 at 10:23

Hehe, wait till your cayotes and caywolves urbanize and figure out it is easier to catch fenced in house pets or for that matter any pet than it is deer. I also wouldn't be surprised if your coyotes are related to the ones originally from northern Mexico seems a lot of unwanted things get across that border and make it to New York!!

I am trying to plant things they hate but am having a very hard time finding anything they won't touch. I, too, have resorted to a 10' high fence. I do love deer, especially on the grill!

SCG