Show #14/8401. The Grand Ideas Garden

Rebecca’s Idea For Controlling Deer - Buck Rub - On Trees

Buck rub on trees can be a real problem. If deer rub their antlers enough against a tree it can remove enough of the bark to destroy that tree. A lot of people like to use fencing or micro enclosures to keep deer away from a plant/tree. Rebecca tells what she thinks is a worthwhile preventative method. In a lot of cases one might have a single tree in your landscape. What deer are really looking for is something under 4 inches that is unimpeded by other branches or other brush around the tree. So they simply put in 3 wooden landscape stakes around the trunk of the tree. They may wrap it, but a lot of times it’s just the depth perception, deer come up to it, look and decide they can’t get their antlers in there. They’ve had smaller plants like a maple, called Hot China, where the bucks just broke it in half, just broke it in half. But one needs to get ahead of the problem. We often think about deer in the late fall but start thinking about the issue in August. So, August, September when they’re thinking about establishing their territory, the velvet is coming off their antlers, a tree can be a their target. They usually leave the bigger 4 inch plus tree alone but if you have just a lone tree they will rip it up too.