Maybe buy a small hand pump sprayer. You could pour whatever you want in it. Except do not use weed killer in a sprayer you use on your hostas.

I have good luck using 20% ammonia solution. Kills slugs repels deer. Might be easier to have on hand.

Oh, and I really empathize with you. I almost gave up on hostas 3 years ago.

Yes, they are eating machines. We don't usually have trouble, but this year a doe and her fawns have made nightly visits. I added hot sauce to Liquid Fence, and made the mistake of spraying a few hostas with Off. They haven't been back since. The Off burned the hosta leaves so badly it did more damage than the deer did. The hot sauce clogged the sprayer, and I had to put he Liquid Fence on with a paintbrush. If you try it, get some without any bits of pepper. They haven't been back since, but if they try again, I have some super hot pepper extract waiting for them. Good luck with your deer.

We always keep a couple of inexpensive sprayers on hand--just in case we can't find the large one. Since we grow daylilies we spray often to keep the new flower buds from being eaten. Deer love daylilies more than hostas! Imagine that :-) I'm thinking of getting a more expensive model of sprayer since ours has to be pumped to get it working. We also switch products since they do get used to one that is put on for several weeks.

How about a motion-activated sprinkler?

Years ago there was someone on this forum who hooked up a motion sensor to a water cannon. The deer were not amused. Before I put up my fence, I seriously considered getting a paint ball gun, but that's illegal in my area. The deer around my acreage had grown very used to me, to the point that I could leave the house and a deer 30 feet away would just raise it's head and stare at me. For a while, yelling and waving my arms would startle them enough that they would run off. But they quickly discovered that I wasn't going to chase them or hurt them. So I got a stack of gallon plastic pots, put it outside by the door, and when I went out and saw a deer, I'd chuck a pot at it, which would startle it and it would run off. That lasted a couple of months, at which point they totally ignored a throw pot unless it actually hit them, then they would casually walk a couple of feet away. Their approach distance rapidly dwindled from 30-40 feet to about 10 feet, at which point I decided that the fence was necessary, because they clearly weren't scared of me or my pots any more.

It has been raining so regularly here that I have barely had the required 24 hrs. without rain in order to spray. They had a feast earlier in the season and most have recovered really well. They ate Royal Standard yesterday though. Grrrr.

dhaven I can relate. I have been known to bark at them in desperation. It is a good thing I am rural and isolated from neighbours. I can't put up a fence unfortunately.

BOBBEX