My poor neighbor just bought her first daylily and the deer ate her buds within two days despite her spraying with liquid fence every day.

Oh boy, not good. I tried Deer Be Gone, apply once a month. I can only hope for the best. The neighbor said they eat most anything, even her iris which are supposed to be deer resistant.

I just read on our town email list what one person has tried and had success (so far) with keeping the deer out of her garden. So at the risk of making us sound a bit silly up here (Vermonters can be so creative when faced with a problem and the nearest store is 40 miles round trip! ) this is what she has tried...

Using those long foam "noodles" kids play with in the swimming pool, cut some long sticks to use as posts and thread them about half way up into the noodle. Then "plant" them so the noodle flops and wiggles in the breeze...if nothing else they will give your neighbors something to talk about

I am reading all this with great interest, but the bottom line seems to be that the deer might be held at bay for a little while, but they wise up fast. It is such a crushing feeling to see the buds of any plants eaten, or the stalks just snipped off and laying on the ground. At that point it's open season on deer and rabbits and I don't feel one speck of empathy for eitherq, Grrrrrrrr.

This method works the best for us, and believe me, we have tried them all. You need a collection of tin pie plates, good strong cord, and those green coated garden posts. I watch at flea markets and garage sales for the real tin pans like Bakers Square sells pies in. They don't tear through like cheap foil pans do, but if that's all you have, use them!! Make a hole on the edge of the pan and tie the cord through there, and then attach to the top of the green stake leaving 18-24 inches of cord between the pan and the top of the stake. Stick the pole in the ground, and the slightest breeze will cause the pan to hit against the stake . Our gardens are far enough away, so the noise isn't a problem, but it's not that loud anyway. The flash of light that is caused by the sun reflecting off the pans, is in itself a deterrent during the day. So far it works pretty well for us, but I suppose they will figure that out too, lol.

I've had good luck with Liquid Fence, when used as directed. Also, deer seem to like hostas better than daylilies.

I've hung strings of computer discs in my mango tree to deter the critters. They are highly reflective, and cheaper than pie pans. Move around lots in the breeze.

I also have a motion detector sprinkler that works wonderfully, but you must place it somewhere that the leaf motion with the wind doesn't trigger it every few seconds, or you'll use a lot of water scaring off your deer. It's great for an open area as you can aim it high enough so it will 'see' deer but not leaf movement. But if there are trees or taller plants within it's range it's not going to work. It also works at night, but I can't use it against my raccoon visitors because then the cat gets sprayed and comes in pretty mad.

Good ideas! I'm going to try pie plates and discs.

Elaine, what is the range on your motion detected sprinklers?

I think it's around 50ft. Leslie. I have to be careful where it's aimed when I set it out in the front yard because the cars going by can set it off and they're at least that far away.

They're available on Amazon. I've had mine for at least 12 years and it still works perfectly as long as I refresh the batteries.

I probably wasn't clear enough on the pie pans, but you want them tall enough so the slightest breeze makes them bump against the pole. This has worked for us in the veggie garden for some time now. Good luck!!!

Karen, I will try that and then also look into the motion sprinklers. What a neat idea!! Thanks for all that have posted. It is very frustrating to have deer damage. Maybe together we can find things that will help us out.

Teresa

I'm giggling here thinking about what the area around my beds will look like with hanging nets of Irish Spring, pie pans, CD's and the sprinklers going. With my luck the deer will use the soap to wash and the sprinklers to rinse.

Okay I am getting desperate. Now the doe that visits is often over in the neighbors yard anywhere between 8-9 pm on 3-4 night a week. I go out there to my fence and talk to her asking to please leave what few lilies I have left to bloom and to PLEASE do not start on my daylilies. I am out there trying to reason with this animal.

She gets hungry and she will not care. Then munch, munch, munch on your flowers.

They must be very tasty. I wonder if you gave them a choice of shelled corn, if they would still eat the buds?

I don't know. Of course there would be guarantee that they would get the corn with all the critters around here.

This is a very old thread. Not sure how I came to it. Perhaps there is another thread on the subject.

Anyway, since it wasn't mentioned, I'll add that Bobbex has been reported to be the most effective deer repellent, 2nd only to a fence in effectiveness. Sue @sooby pointed me to the study, I think it was U of Connecticut.

Garden centers around here don't seem to have caught on. We order it from Home Depot for free in-store or home delivery depending on how much we are ordering. We have the concentrate for making up 1-2 gallon tanks to use during peak bloom season. We keep a RTU hand pump bottle around for quick touch ups and off-season such as on our few rhododendrons. We also have the pump-top hand spray for the concentrate. I only find it useful for short excursions, it's inefficient.

We plan to catch the beginning of their nibbling, which starts when the first green bud clusters get temptingly high. This helps teach them that "daylilies are not edible".

Some of our earliest daylilies are not very important to us. At the first signs of nibbling we treat any clumps with buds at that stage. Every week I treat more, as more scapes develop. If there are no heavy rains this spray persists long enough to protect them through flowering. Any spray residue still on the buds acts as a taste repellent in addition to smell. With light rains it still seems effective. Heavy rains lead to spraying again.

Our daylilies are concentrated in a 1/2 acre field. Often we find that treating just plants on the perimeter is enough to repel them. If they do enter the field and munch there, I do additional spraying.

Bobbex smells very, very bad! It will linger in the garden awhile but then the odor dissipates to undetectable to our noses but the deer clearly get it! Also it would taste very bad if eaten.

I find that the odor seems to penetrate anything I'm wearing. I wear a hat, mask, gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and socks. I take those off as soon as I come into the laundry room and put them straight in the washer. It does wash out.

This product has been protecting our daylilies for several years with no evidence that the deer are developing a tolerance.

I hope someone finds this useful!

Pat