Wow you and your tree woes seems to be never ending! Does everyone have this many problems with trees? I’ve only planted Redbuds and JM’s so very limited experience and I think I’ll stick to those lol. It sure does look like deer to me, but what do I know? Just wanted to come on to give you my sympathy and wish you luck!

Dang. I LOATHE deer

Looks like it but this NEVER happens around me now in NJ, only in NOVEMBER. They seem to target, NEW/YOUNG trees. They have ALWAYS recoperated for me though. Leave it be, tree will seal off the wound and grow around it. It will never "heal", healing occurs in the animal kinddom. Plants seal off the dead tissue with new growth. As long as 50% or under of the circumference is damaged, it should recover, believe it or not!

All my Magnolias were intially severely scared in the deer rut, every one and the Ginkgo fully recovered. It will take a few growing seasons, and they seem to lose interest with the same tree. No idea why.

Deer rubbing. Which reminds me that I gotta get out NOW and protect some of my young trees.

Boy, something was angry with your tree that's for sure! Does looks like buck rub, though despite my far north location, I also have never seen such occur until into November ... but, is good reminder of need to get my younger trees protected before too long here.

Early September, deer will rub trees when the velvet stage of antler production nears its end and the bucks 'spar' and rub on trees to remove the itchy, dying velvet from their antlers.

Later, in October, hormones kick in and deer become more territorial and rubs are made to mark areas where a buck intends on gathering a 'harem' and will attempt to keep other bucks out from there.

This can be a farm field, orchard, home garden or just a person putting feed near their house, to draw deer in where they can be viewed through their picture window.

It's during this time, the smaller bucks, who aren't feeling up to taking on a larger, more mature buck (or have and learned their lesson), will live in areas not too far away and rub on smaller, more flexible trees that fit them better (out in the country, we always said, the larger the tree, the larger the buck). This is an annual event and locations can change depending on how feed sources change from year to year).

On trees that don't need winter sun protection, I just use a 2ft. high, chicken wire cylinder and a garden stake or two.

It doesn't look like much but it works, and I have next door neighbors feeding deer 50ft. away (mine have been on for almost a month already).

I think your tree will recover. Although it is a setback and disappointment.

Welcome to the world of gardening! ;-)

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5494021/don-t-forgot-to-put-your-tree-protectors-on

That's interesting you all are mentioning fall months for deer rub -- they start early here IME, I put up the drainpipe guards in mid-July. I learned my lesson one year and waited until a little later...and we all know one night is one night too late.

"Boy, something was angry with your tree that's for sure! "

I just cannot get over the fact that they tore the heck out of the plastic fence protection I had around the trunk. I mean, there's 1000s of acres of state land full of unprotected trees right out back but no...they had to terrorize this poor thing...that had trunk protection around it. Unbelievable.

There are a couple of scrub apples in the vicinity, we leave the apples to fall to feed the wildlife -- and if they go out there to dine they'll stay away from my stuff up by the house. That's my theory anyway. So maybe the comment about the harem holds true here. The apples are very old with large trunks and branches low to the ground so they probably can't get a good rub off those.

After I put up the wire fence around this poor thing, I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon taking down the same plastic fencing I had around my other trees and put the corrugated drain pipe back up. There's no way they can get through that stuff. Didn't want to take any chances. It's just that I take it off in the spring to expose the bark to better air circulation and sunlight so it's on-off every year, I was trying to get away from that by using the plastic fencing wrapped around the trunks.

Anyway, I still have a couple trees that are going to need wider diameter pipe, good problem to have because the trees are putting on girth, it's just that I have to order it and hope the deer don't decided to destroy those in the meantime. Hopefully the plastic netting around teh trunk will hold another week or two.

Deer Rut here in NJ, Zone 7z/b is November. I have a lot of feral cats here, year round, they do 0 damage, it is the freakin DEER!

The peak of the deer rut here is November 14th. But the bucks start antler rubs and ground scrapes way before that.

The Celtis Occidentalis is the second tree I've had cats scratch up. In the past, cats worked over an Ash tree by my old house. It didn't really hurt the tree, just looked bad for a while.

In order to discourage the deer, I leave the low hanging branches on the Magnolias, Southern Mags will grow very low to the ground, the branches help protect the trunk. Otherwise, deer LOVE Magnolias because their wood is SOFT, makes no difference if they are Yankee or Southern Mags. LOL.

Those big white-tailed rats are really having at it. Since my original post, I've seen severe rub damage and breakage on multiple hazelnut and silky dogwood shrubs and a hydrangea tree. AARGH!!

@porkchop: The bucks are at war w/your plants. I've taken cut-off goldenrod stems of 4-6 ft length and stacked them around the trunks of young trees to try to hide the trunks from their vision.

"The bucks are at war w/your plants."

You got that right...

Do they not like goldenrod, or you're just hiding the trunks?

@pork chop, the area is solid w/goldenrods, and they know that's nothing for them to rub. So if it looks to them like simply another group of goldenrods instead of a tree-trunk, they should pass it by. I've also stacked hay around trunks of small trees & stuck cut-off tall weeds into the hay to do the same trick. Just my desires, fencing and the required posts is just too much for me to buy, install and deal with.....

'The bucks are at war w/your plants.'

That's an accurate description, beng, even though deer don't think of it in that way,

they will 'attack' anywhere and anytime they wish, *if* you don't do anything to stop them.

Like wishing something bad won't happen then being unwilling to do anything about it? 😉

I'm seeing way too many rabbits this Fall, that are on the larger than normal side (and they appear very hungry, I can see it in their eyes 🤣).

But I'm not getting caught unprepared this time around.

Last season, rabbits severely damaged the lower branches on my Picea Abies, that was left unprotected, thinking it was too big (6ft) and too undesirable to be bothered by animals.

And with no stakes driven into the ground by Fall, I couldn't do anything except string up a makeshift, wire surround on top of the snow, just to get by until spring.

This Fall, with a preliminary 2ft. fence, already staked into the ground, I can easily add another 2ft. on top (even during the winter), if need be.

Norway Spruce: 8ft. tall and missing several branches at the base.

"Like wishing something bad won't happen then being unwilling to do anything about it?"

I'm not sure if that was a swipe at me or not.... I can't (and won't) wrap up every single tree and shrub on my property -- the important stuff yes, the rest of it? No. I'm on acreage, just have to accept that there's going to be some amount of damage somewhere out there from something or other {shrug}. Although, this year seem more than normal in terms of rubbing. I did see two very young bucks enjoying the scrub apples that had fallen, I wonder if there are more bucks in the broods than years past. No clue, just musing.

My original posted noted I *did* protect the tree and the beasts still got it good. In the interim, I put up a wire fence around that one and all the other trees that had the plastic deer fencing either got wire fencing or the corrugated drainpipes put back on, as did the new trees I planted. The deer can take THAT and stuff it up their hind ends LOL!

No swipes intended porkchop.

We only wish the best for ya. :-)

I was commenting on bengs comment about war.

No body wants it but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. ;-)

Good for you, that you got things under control!

That fence in the first picture would probably be enough to dissuade cattle but better too much than not enough imo.

I'm still a little skeptical about black tree tubes, I've never tried them after warnings I received on this site about the dangers of using them, although being in a different climate, you might have a totally different experience where you are. Not sure if you ever had winter sun scald or where the person lives that advised us of that.

I think it has something to do with locations where the ground freezes and sun exposure but I don't know what the formula is to determine which trees are susceptible and which ones are not. I just put them on in the Fall and take them off in the Spring after it warms up. 🤷‍♂️

"I'm still a little skeptical about black tree tubes, I've never tried them after warnings I received on this site about the dangers of using them..."

I've been using them for quite some time, they work well. It's corrugated, perforated drainage pipe, readily available at Home Depot and the like. I could see there maybe being a problem if they were tight around the tree and sans perforations, but that's not the case here. You'll notice there's plenty of room between the pipe and the trunk, whether it gets really heated up in winter/spring sun IDK but I've never noticed any damage that looks like winter bark injury when I've remove them in spring. Not yet, anyway.

And I was going to say that Perforated tubing would make a big difference. So it sounds like you're good to go.

I do run into times when my unvented tubes get a little small for the trees so in that case, the white plastic would be a better idea imo.

And just for an aside, I've used vented 'Tree Savers' that are made to protect the tree from weed whippers and lawn mowers. They're vented and work well in combination with tree tubes that aren't vented.

Heat naturally rises thus causing a circulation of air inside the tube (this tree doesn't need sun protection anymore but I just put this on for an example). :-)

That's a textbook buck rub on the upper trunk — and you're right to be suspicious about the gnawing at the bottom. Deer shred bark vertically in the fall rut; they don't usually chew at ground level. That lower damage is more likely rabbits or voles over winter. A few things our tree-care crew in central Illinois has learned the hard way:

- Plastic is a speed bump, not a shield. A 4–5 ft cylinder of welded-wire fencing, staked a few inches off the bark, survives rut season. Keep it off the bark so it doesn't trap moisture.
- For the base, wrap 1/4" hardware cloth around the trunk and bury it an inch or two — that stops rabbits and voles cold.
- Don't paint or wrap the wound. If the damage isn't all the way around the trunk, a healthy lilac will compartmentalize it on its own. Just give it a season and keep the area dry.

The real question is how much of the circumference is girdled — once it's past about a third, we start having an honest conversation about whether the tree is worth saving. We walk homeowners through that exact call in plain language here: https://treeremovalpeoriail.com/tree-removal-peoria-il/

— The tree-care team at Peoria Tree Removal Co., Peoria, IL