How to Protect Your Trees from Deer Damage

In this episode, Mike Cassidy from Davey's West Columbus office talks all about deer damage and how we can try to safely protect our trees. 

In this episode we cover:  

• Why are we seeing more deer? (1:06)
• Plants that deer might not eat (2:12)
• What size trees do deer typically rub on? (4:20)
• What can you do to protect trees? (4:56)
• Most eaten plants? (7:46)
• Motion sprinklers (9:32)
• Sonic deer repeller (9:58)
• Clients' frustration (11:40)
• Fishing line (14:00)
• How Mike became an arborist (14:38)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about protecting your landscape from deer, watch our YouTube video, How To Protect Trees from Deer and Wildlife, or read our blogs, Keep Deer from Rubbing Antlers on Trees and Fix Damaged Trees and How to Protect & Repair Trees from Animals: Deer, Rabbits, Squirrels.

To learn more about trees deer may avoid, read our blog, Best Fast Growing, Deer Resistant Trees.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davy Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists favorite trees, and much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast we know trees are the answer. This week I'm joined by Mike Cassidy, he's a sales arborist for the Davey Tree Expert Company in Columbus, Ohio. Today we're talking about the bane of my existence, which are deer, Mike, and it's like a Disney movie in my yard. There's blocks and fawns and does and they don't care that I'm around.

Mike Cassidy: It's interesting. Here, you talk to gardeners and it gives them a new perspective on Bambi. They look back on a hunter and say, maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Ruined my childhood, but now here I am. How true, how true.

Doug: First off, why are we seeing so much deer pressure?

Mike: I think it's a population issue on both sides. We got way more people, we're pushing into the woods, we're taking away their habitat, and we got way more deer because of lack of predators, kind of figure anything that can eat a deer could probably eat a human. We try to call some of them and now we're the last two standing, I guess. An interesting one that I run into pretty often is people that feed deer, which I love because I usually get the neighbor and they say, well, my neighbor feeds the deer. Is there anything I can do about that? It's tough.

Doug: I hear the same thing and it's not done in such a kind way. They're shaking their fist at their neighbor.

Mike: Yes.

Doug: Idiot is feeding them.

Mike: Yes. I think it's a family podcast. I tried to keep down the real quotes from them.

Doug: I've noticed that when we had a real dry spell here, that the deer were basically forced out of the forest, even more so than normal, looking for everything in the garden, from trees, shrubs, to whatever else they could find?

Mike: Yes, I see a meat about everything. I get the question, every planting season, what should I plant to not get hit by deer? Barberry don't get eaten in my experience, and I guess boxwoods, but they get eaten by everything else. I think just about everything other than that, they'll eat if they're hungry enough. They make Arborvitae look like they were trimmed by a child. They have that low bottom and it's all left on top. I particularly dislike the way they make a Taxus look where they make them have little balls on the end where they eat all the new growth and leave everything else. You can really spot it walking up pretty quick what's going on.

Doug: I call that selective pruning.

Mike: Doing our job for it, that's another reason why I really don't like them.

Doug: What are some signs that deer are causing a problem in our yard?

Mike: It's pretty simple, right? You can see them eating. It's anything that's getting eaten that's too high for it to be a squirrel or a rabbit. You see the scat in the yard. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and we're potty training him. We reward him with chocolate chips. Then I send him in the backyard and he thinks he's finding them everywhere and I got to go chase him down. It makes a mess for me. Then, rubbing, obviously, they rub on trunks and they can do some serious damage there, a little bit worse than a hosta getting chewed up when you lose a new maple you just planted.

Doug: Let's talk a little bit about the rut, about that rubbing, because where I'm at here and probably where you're at too down in Columbus, we're seeing the start of the rut and we're seeing rubbing on small trees and not so small trees, too. What size tree do the usually rub on?

Mike: I feel like I've seen them really shred everything up to even maybe 10 inches, 12 inches, somewhere in there. Just like feeding, if they need it, they'll get it where they can. You got to watch out for everything. Really when people are planting, I'm usually instructing them for the two-inch, four-inch, six-inch. You really got to get this thing wrapped up. I see deer damage in your neighborhood all the time. Let's protect this trunk. It's pretty low-cost, low-invasive.

Doug: What stuff do you use to protect them? What do you like to use?

Mike: I think that if you really want to protect from deer, especially when they're most active, you just got to put up some fencing and it doesn't look great. It takes away from what people are going for in their yards. We even have some clients that'll use an electric fence and I'll tell you, their stuff doesn't get eaten. Makes your yard look a little more carceral than bucolic, but it works. We use deer protection spray.

There's a couple different kinds, but it's pretty much all just making it taste bad, making it smell bad. A lot of times that first ingredient on the box is putrefied eggs, or they call it something putrescence I think they say which is such a cool word but it's tough. When they're hungry, they'll eat it and applications can be tough because people try to do it themselves. Sometimes, if you do it wrong, the deer pro is more like deer amateur.

Doug: I had some of that deer pro sent to me, and in the box, I left it in my car for a couple days. I didn't even think about it. For almost a year, it smelled like deer pro in that car. [crosstalk] Yes, I got to think that stuff's going to work. When I'm thinking about rubbing, is there a physical barrier that we can put on the actual tree to stop them from rubbing?

Mike: Oh, sure. We put on a black mesh, almost like a temporary fencing. It's really not very invasive. It's super easy to put on. You just make a cut and put some zip ties on it. Some people do like corrugated PVC or PVC, the black stuff they use underground just for the winter time. That works pretty well too. The only thing I'd say about that is I've seen where people just set it and forget it and then years down the road, now it's causing problems.

It's keeping the bark wet. I like the windowed fencing better. I've never seen a deer yet that has rubbed through that windowed fencing and still damage the trees. I don't know if it just makes them mad enough but that's what I'm recommending out there.

Doug: Then when does it come off? How do you know when the rut is over and they're not going to be rubbing anymore?

Mike: I just tell them to take it off in the spring. I'm sure it could be tighter but it's not hurting anybody. I usually tell them to really make a lot wider window than they have to because why not. What's your most eaten plant at your house by the deer?

Doug: That would be hosta daylily. I'm trying to think any annuals. I'm with you at first physical barrier of some type but as you said, it looks ugly. The ironic thing about this, Mike, is that mountain laurel is poisonous to them, but the young deer will eat the buds and then go sleep it off. I have to actually put up tomato stakes and put that fencing around the mountain laurel during the winter. The other thing I use besides the physical barrier, I use a repellent and I mix up my repellents, and as long as I remember to spray, and here's the problem.

As long as I remember, they'll stay off the plants, but the day you forget, boy, I lost a whole bottom section of a rhododendron last winter and it actually sprouted back, but you know how that is. The first thing I did was fertilize that rhododendron because that's a lot of energy to put out. I think one of the things that we talked about before we got going here was, and it all comes back to the health of the tree. Eventually, if you're in deer country, they're going to eat something. If that tree's healthy, I'm sure it's going to bounce back better, right?

Mike: That's really all you can do sometimes, especially, like you say, if we have a drought and they're getting pushed out or whatever it is, you just got to go keep them healthy. I heard of someone who has sprinklers on motion detectors and they say that works really well. That also works really well for me when I'm on their property to deter me from their plants. It's an added benefit there, human deterrent.

Doug: I was going to say that sprinkler works great, but do not put it where your wife walks the dog.

Mike: [laughs] How about the sonic deer and animal protection, just generally.

Doug: Yes, I should have looked up the one that a friend of mine is using. It's solar powered, and it makes a noise like an electric snap. She swears by it. There's so many products out there. I just don't know how that works, but it's the first year she's been able to grow daylilies.

Mike: Okay, so it worked for her. I see a lot of deer damage when I'm getting driven slowly mad by the sound of those things going off all around me. I can't imagine working in a garden and hearing that all day.

Doug: Oh, I hear you. I think it's triggered by movement or something. When you're cutting the grass, or you're doing this or doing that.

Mike: You've got to be careful with the sound generating black plastic ones you get for your car. I put those on backwards when I first got them, and I hit five deer in a week. They were just getting drawn to the vehicle like crazy. No, I'm just kidding.

Doug: Yes, come on now.

Mike: I'm actually working on a mole style trap for deer. It's about the size of a Volkswagen, and it has the big spike in it. The dogs and cats are the problem right now.

Doug: This is getting pretty serious.

Mike: I got a few people who I know would take it. They'd say, if you clean them up afterwards, you can bring them in. We need it. Imagine a live trap for deer like we use for groundhogs. You have to get a crane to come haul it off. I guess that--

Doug: Tell me a little bit about your clients and their frustration because I hear from people every day that many of them just give up on gardening, give up on their landscape, because they can't beat this problem. I'm in deer central, and I've been able to find some things that they don't like. Of course, protecting the trees from the rubbing is serious business. Tell me a little bit about what your clients are doing and how their frustration level is.

Mike: Yes, it's interesting, because I have old developments or high-end developments where they cut them out of the woods, and they're backed right up to the woods, and they're getting hammered. Then you got new developments, too, where they just clear-cut a field or whatever, and they get them just as bad. It just can't be stopped. We have people that say, oh, that's where they sleep every night, over there in the corner of our backyard.

We have good results with DeerPros as long as we stick on it, the spray. I don't believe in the sound generators, but maybe they work. The best results I see are really when people think ahead and incorporate fencing in with their landscape or a garden path style, where then maybe they can more elegantly fence it off so it doesn't look like a cow pasture in the fall or whatever it might be.

Doug: One of my best deterrents was a dog. I had just this little dog, Max the Wonder Dog. He knew the property line. He could just run free on his own. He was that kind of dog. He would not let those deer cross the property line. I saw him once chase five deer off the property like three times. Now, my question is, how can a little dog that's about, I don't know, 60 pounds chase a big deer but still be afraid of the cat?

Mike: Cats are vicious. Their eyes face forward. That's the sign of a predator. He could tell. He knows he's out to eat. Yes, I've heard of people putting dog fur in their garden beds, too, to deter pests. Man, I just can't believe it when I see the damage.

Doug: You hear all sorts of things. There's Irish spring. There's going to the barber and using hair. None of that stuff's going to work.

Mike: No way.

Doug: One more suggestion that I've had good luck with is real thick fishing line, actually, put up with streamers on it at one foot intervals. That's what I have around my vegetable garden.

Mike: No fence.

Doug: No, I've got a four by fours that are eight foot tall. It's fenced at picket level. Then I put up above the picket, I put the monofilament with the streamers on it. They don't cross that for some reason.

Mike: Interesting. That might be deer protection you can fawn over.

Doug: Oh, ouch.

Mike: Yes, thank you.

Doug: All right, so besides being a certified arborist comedian, tell me a little bit about how you got into this job.

Mike: I really wanted to climb trees, so I came to Davey. I was in scrap metal forever and I was looking for a new industry. I started climbing trees. Started with Davey, this would be my fifth year here in something like that. I loved it, moved up, now I'm in sales. Really, my wife said, "We got a two-year-old now and you got to go get out of the trees."

Doug: Yes, tough. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with your clients and why you like what you do. Is part of it being outside because I hear that a lot?

Mike: Yes, I guess I can say part of it's being outside. I like being able to get work for the crews. I like to say, I'm going out and I'm going to make sure that everyone's eating. Maybe Saturdays, we'll get whatever we can, but we're going to keep the boys working. Responding to storm damage is awesome. Being able to really help people when they need something. Be the first boots on the ground and get out there.

Just, it's something different to learn about these trees and pests and pathogens that have been around forever and are like a constant, nature, as opposed to say, learning about some industry where you're learning about industry standards right now for HVAC or whatever it may be. No offense to HVAC workers out there, but it just feels more concrete. It feels like I'm a part of the natural world now or affecting it positively.

Doug: In Columbus, what was your season like and how did your season affect the deer damage?

Mike: Super wet spring, poured rain, everything got leaf disease and then it dried up and it didn't rain again until two days ago. Hottest summer on record and driest summer since the Dust Bowl. Deer damage was prevalent. I guess I didn't notice any decline or increase, but I can guarantee if I go to a property, hostas are going to get chomped up. It's just a constant that we're always in the middle of and people ask me about it, I say, well, you have this option and that option. They say, well, I guess I'll just fertilize and hope they come back next year.

Doug: That's a great recommendation because as we both know, even though something will be deer resistant, if they're hungry enough or young enough and don't know any better, they're going to nibble on it.

Mike: It's fun to get down into the theories people have. I had a guy last week who said, I forget what flower it was, if it was mumswort, he said, "They eat the red ones, but not the yellow ones. Next year, I'm going all yellow." I was like, "All right, I'll be here for it. If that works, you're onto something."

Doug: All right, Mike, I think we've covered everything we needed to talk about regarding deer. I'm not looking forward to a long winter of battling the deer, but I've got to keep them off that mountain laurel. I got to keep them off my beloved rhododendron and I just have to remember to keep spraying. Thanks for all the tips. I appreciate it.

Mike: You got it. My pleasure. I have been trying to get on this show forever. I'm so happy about it. You're the man.

Doug: Oh, I appreciate it. That was a good first performance. That was a lot of fun. I'm sure we're going to have you back.

Mike: All right, it was great talking to you. Thanks again.

Doug: That was fun. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Mike is one funny guy for sure. Now tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster, and I need you to do me a favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode. If you've got an idea for a show, maybe a comment, there's a couple of ways to reach us. Send an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S @ D-A-V-E-Y.com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast. We'd love to hear from you. As always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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