(ARA) – Deer do some of their worst damage to your garden, landscape, trees and shrubs in winter, when other food sources are hard to come by.

“In the early 1900s, there were probably only about half a million deer spread out all over the country,” says James Messina of Messina Wildlife. “Today, there are more than 15 million. Deer, it turns out, adapt quite well to life in suburbia. Keeping them away from residential and commercial landscaping can help everyone – deer and homeowners – to co-exist more happily together.”

With no place to go and not much left to eat in the dead of winter, deer can wreak havoc in your backyard and destroy new buds and leaves before they ever have a chance to grow. As seasons change, the preferred food sources of deer change as well.

Deer develop new browsing trails as food sources change with the seasons, and repeatedly follow them through the season until new food sources begin to appear. That’s when the deer drama begins ….

Whitetail deer can consume, on average, 12 pounds of foliage a day. And in the winter, when natural food sources are scarce, they’ll give homeowners more trouble than any other time of year. The more snow we get, the worse the problem becomes. A winter of consistent snow coverage is great for bulbs and perennials, but evergreens face the toughest challenge from hungry deer looking to survive.

Deer are creatures of habit, and contrary to popular belief, the majority of them do not migrate. Bucks are known to travel more than 100 miles, but does will stay within the same three to four square miles for their entire lives. This means the deer you see this year are probably the exact same deer you saw last year. It also means that once they’ve found a food source, potentially yours, they’ll be back time and time again.

Fend off deer by applying repellents before you see the damage, encouraging the deer to move along and not include your landscape in their browse buffet.

Repellents rely on deer’s strong sense of smell and range from commercial products to homemade concoctions of human hair, blood meal or chunks of deodorant soap. But traditional animal repellents have become less effective than they were decades ago, Messina notes.

“That’s because many of those repellents rely on a bad smell – like the stench of a rotting carcass – to fool animals into thinking a predator’s kill is in the area and the predator may be returning for it,” he says. “But the number of predators out there has actually declined, and deer know it. They’re much less afraid of predators, so relying on ’scare tactics’ has a greater tendency to fail over time.”

Some deer have also built up a resistance to chemical deterrents. Plus, increasingly eco-conscious homeowners prefer not to put potentially harmful chemicals into the environment.

More homeowners are turning to organic alternatives, like Deer Stopper, a repellent formulated from plant extracts. This organic option works because it confronts deer by using their natural repulsion to certain plant smells and tastes rather than relying on fear of predator tactics.

“We know that deer will eat more than 500 different types of plants,” Messina says. “Normally, they’re quite discriminating. But in fall and winter, they become less picky and much more of a threat to suburban landscapes. Still, like many wild animals, deer rely on taste and smell to judge if a food may be harmful to them. If your backyard foliage tastes or smells unpleasant to them, one bite and they’ll move on.”

Deer Stopper by Messina Wildlife Management is the only organic repellent in the country certified by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI). An effective taste deterrent, Deer Stopper is 100 percent organic and completely safe for use on all types of plants and shrubs. OMRI lists it as approved for use by organic growers. The smell- and taste-based technology also eliminates the need to use foul, odor-based repellent products, which can be quite unpleasant for homeowners’ use.

Deer Stopper actually smells good to humans. Lightly misting vegetation once a month, even during the cold and snowy winter, will keep deer away all season long.

This winter protect your plants and shrubs and create your own boundaries for foraging bucks and deer. Now you’re in control of the drama.

For more information on Deer Stopper, retail store locations and other wildlife management repellents visit www.messinawildlife.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Related posts:

1. Passing the Buck . . . and the Doe and the Fawn
2. The Buck, and the Deer, Stop Here
3. Easy ways to protect your landscape from deer

An adult deer eats between 6 and 10 pounds of food per day, but all-natural repellents can stop critters from destroying your plants.

(ARA) – When Bambi invites all his friends to dinner, make sure it’s not in your yard. If you don’t protect your landscaping, Bambi and his friends will be crunching tulips like candy and popping peas right off the vine. You can bet they’ll be stealing your prize tomatoes this summer and munching your mums in the fall. 

With deer tipping the 30 million population mark and suburban sprawl on the rise, it’s no wonder these unwanted creatures are cruising your neighborhood and destroying your yard in the process. 

“We garden to create our own private patch of Eden and escape the demands of daily life,” says Rhonda Massingham Hart, author of Deerproofing Your Yard & Garden. “When deer violate these living sanctuaries they damage more than plants. They hurt us.” 

It’s more than frustrating to spend your time, effort, and money to turn your yard into a haven only to find your new flowers and shrubs have been mowed down by hungry deer and rabbits. It’s expensive. With an adult deer eating between 6 and 10 pounds of food per day, deer damage costs homeowners millions of dollars annually. 

* There goes the neighborhood … one bite at a time. 
The expansion of suburbs, roads and golf courses is creating perfect “deer smorgasbords” with tender young shrubs, pretty flowers, lush lawns and now abundant vegetable gardens at their taking. The truth is, no plants are truly “deer proof.” 

“Deer are creatures of habit and stay near a good food source — like your backyard,” says Dave Mizejewski, naturalist with the National Wildlife Association. “And they’re not afraid of city life so a lush garden or lawn is a magnet for hungry deer and rabbits.” 

* Oh, deer … what to do? 
Forget putting a radio blaring in your azaleas, fabric softener sheets strewn over your flowers or soap dangling from tree branches. Bambi and friends will enjoy the music as they play with the soap and dine alfresco using the sheets as placemats. 

But be forewarned: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

According to Mizejewski, “It’s much easier to prevent critter damage than it is to stop the foraging cycle once it’s begun. Repellents are designed to smell or taste bad to critters.” He recommends all-natural repellents that stop critters from eating your plants, are safe for the environment and don’t harm wildlife. 

* Back off, Bambi. 
Deer rely heavily on their super-sensitive noses to find food and sense danger, but it’s also their Achilles’ heel. 

That’s why a liberal application of a proven effective, all-season deer repellent such as Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent on and around landscaped gardens stops unwanted visitors cold from dining on plants they find irresistible. 

It works on “scent” and dries odorless to us but not to deer and rabbits, so they don’t have to take a bite to be effective — unlike other repellents that require the deer to “munch away.” Once they get a sniff, even rabbits will be hopping back to the forest and not toward your carrots or pansies. 

In today’s economy, you really can’t afford not to protect your valuable plants and yard. “Folks spend too much time and money on the perfect plants to let the deer and rabbits spoil it all by eating them,” says world-renown horticulturist, native plant breeder and author Dr. Allan Armitage. 

“I’ve been a fan of Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent since my first application years ago,” he says. “It’s the No. 1 repellent on the market, and I wouldn’t trust my garden to anything else.” 

* Garden Survival Guide 
Armitage recommends spraying a repellent in the spring as soon as the tender shoots appear, and around all plants, trees and shrubs. 

And you don’t need to buy different repellents to rotate applications and reapply weekly to see great results. Rotating repellents is an urban myth. 

Today folks are looking for ways to save “green” while they “go green.” Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent is actually less expensive than the green alternatives so you can feel good that it’s safe for the environment as well as your kids, pets, plants and your wallet. 

Repellent should be applied monthly and can withstand about 1 inch of rain. It’s a good idea to reapply after a heavy downpour of an inch or more. 

* All Together Now 
And if Bambi invites his other friends — rabbits, geese, moles, snakes and other unwanted critters, The Liquid Fence Company has a complete line of natural, environmentally safe solutions to keep them out of the garden and in the woods. 

For more information visit www.liquidfence.com. 

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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2. The Buck, and the Deer, Stop Here
3. Deter ‘deer drama’ this winter

You don’t have to be a wildlife expert to know that after generations of dwelling in close proximity to humans, modern deer aren’t afraid of us anymore. What’s more, they no longer fear many of the traditional repellents some homeowners still use to protect shrubs, trees and landscaping. So when cool weather comes along and the natural landscape dies, deer have to start foraging for food sources. And they aren’t afraid to walk right into your yard and help themselves to your well-watered, well-established evergreens.

Even just a few deer can cause significant damage to your landscaping. “A single whitetail deer can consume, on average, 8 to 12 pounds of foliage a day,” says James Messina of Messina Wildlife Management. “In many areas of the country, deer overpopulation is a serious problem. With nowhere to go and not much left to eat in the dead of winter, deer can wreak havoc on shrubs, trees and gardens, and destroy new buds and leaves before they have a chance to grow, ruining your prospects for any spring growth.”

Hungry and bold, deer move into residential areas in the winter, and the damage they do in the cold weather will affect your landscape’s health next spring. Traditional animal repellents are also less effective than they were decades ago, Messina notes.

“That’s because those repellents rely on a bad smell — like the stench of a rotting carcass — to fool animals into thinking a predator’s kill is in the area and the predator may be returning for it,” he says. “But the number of predators has actually declined, and deer know it. They’re less afraid of predators, so relying on scare tactics has a greater tendency to fail over time.”

Some wildlife has also built up a resistance to chemical deterrents. Plus, increasingly eco-conscious homeowners prefer not to put potentially harmful chemicals into the environment. Other more lethal alternatives are not only inhumane but illegal in most parts of the country.

More homeowners are turning to organic alternatives, like Deer Stopper, a repellent formulated from plant extracts. This organic option works because it confronts deer by using their natural repulsion to certain plant smells and tastes rather than relying on fear.

“We know that deer will eat over 500 different types of plants,” Messina says. “Normally, they’re quite discriminating. But in fall and winter, when food is harder to find, they become less picky and much more of a threat to suburban landscapes. Still, like many wild animals, deer rely on taste and smell to judge if a food may be harmful to them. If your backyard foliage tastes or smells unpleasant to them, one bite and they’ll move on.”

An effective taste deterrent, Deer Stopper is 100 percent organic and completely safe for use on all types of plants — from vegetables to trees, flowers to shrubs. The Organic Materials Review Institute lists it as approved for use by organic growers. The smell- and taste-based technology also eliminates the need for a foul odor, so Deer Stopper actually smells good to humans. Lightly mist vegetation once a month, even during the cold and snowy winter to keep deer away all season long. To learn more, or to find retail locations, visit www.messinawildlife.com.

“In the early 1900s, there were probably only about half a million deer spread out over the country,” Messina says. “Today, there are more than 15 million. Deer, it turns out, adapt quite well to life in suburbia. Keeping them away from residential and commercial landscaping can help everyone — deer and homeowners — co-exist more happily together.”

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Related posts:

1. Deter ‘deer drama’ this winter
2. The Buck, and the Deer, Stop Here
3. Spring Garden Fixes Safely Fend Off Furry Friends

But these creatures don’t have to be the enemy of our gardens, and trapping them won’t solve their relationship problems with humans. As we all are well aware, the arrival of spring brings the wildlife out of hibernation, and most likely right into our backyards and gardens. As spring is sprung, we suddenly are faced with long gardening to-do lists and a wide variety of pesky critters.

As a rule of thumb, it is far better to prevent wildlife damage than to wait until it occurs and try to combat it. This spring, Messina Wildlife Management can help you protect your beautiful backyards and your gardens with a full line of OMRI certified (100 percent) organic animal repellents. The products are all easily applied in a ready to use spray-on bottle. They dry clear, are all pleasant smelling, and work for 30 days before reapplication is needed, no matter the weather. The full product line can even be used on edibles, and none of the products cause harm or physical irritation to the animals they repel. The products work by smell and taste, repelling pesky critters from your backyard, and they’re all pleasant smelling and safe to humans.

Pesky Problems
1. Groundhogs: During the spring, summer and early fall, the Marota monax, also known as the Woodchuck, Whistlepig, or Groundhog, is a voracious, wild herbivore. It’s the groundhog’s goal to eat as much as possible which puts him on a collision course within your garden.

Groundhogs are tunnel boring pests that can cause damage to your garden in two ways. First, they eat vegetables in the garden, attacking both the root crops and above ground crops. A second problem with tunneling rodents is the mass disruption of root systems, this weakens and can even kill the plants.

2. Rabbits: These furry creatures seem to multiply at the advent of every spring. They come out to feed overnight and in the predawn/dawn hours. Rabbits are accountable for severe damage to woody plants in your home landscape. The damage can be identified by the characteristic appearance of gnawing on older woody growth and the clean-cut, angled clipping of young stems. Distinctive round droppings in the immediate area are a good sign of their presence.

Luckily, 90 percent of the rabbit’s diet is grass. Those of us that have rabbit damage would swear that 90 percent of the damage they cause is to our gardens and expensive flowers! Rabbit damage can be identified by the clean, angled cut on the food source in question. The browsing of a rabbit will usually be no higher than 2.5 feet above ground.

3. Deer: For non-gardener’s, there’s a captivating fascination with spotting a deer in a field, or perhaps in your yard. For gardener’s, it can be quite the opposite. You love the sight of deer, anywhere but not in your garden. Yet, they seem impossible to keep away. Deer are responsible for a considerable amount of damage to plant and vegetable gardens. To determine if your flowers and vegetables are disappearing due to deer damage look closely at the half eaten plants. If you see a jagged, rough edge you can be sure the damage was done by deer as they have no incisor teeth and tear at the food source, leaving tell-tale signs of their presence.

4: Squirrels and Chipmunks: These cute, furry, funny creatures can be quite destructive when it comes to your gardens and landscapes. Both ground squirrels and chipmunks are burrowing animals. Their burrow entrances are always open, unlike those of pocket gophers who plug theirs with soil.

Ground squirrels and chipmunks can be seen foraging for food during the day. In nature, they feed on green leafy material during the summer and switch to seeds and grains during the fall and winter. One of the biggest complaints about squirrels and chipmunks is their attraction to wild bird feeders. They not only devour the feed they scare the birds away.

For most animals scent and taste are the primary senses that attract them to food sources. If you disrupt the animal’s sense of smell and taste you have won the battle against the constant parade of critters in your landscapes. Visit www.messinawildlifemanagement.com for more information on safe, effective pest repellents.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Related posts:

1. Easy ways to protect your landscape from deer
2. Managing Wildlife Destruction
3. The Buck, and the Deer, Stop Here

All these critters, and many more, can make keeping a beautiful garden, a nice lawn or some outstanding trees in good shape a real challenge. Fortunately, there are several simple and inexpensive ways to keep the damage to a minimum.

Deer, for example, are very fond of apples. Having a feeder away from the garden will keep their focus where you want it to be, away from your plants and flowers. Or, you can try one of the many commercially available deer repellent sprays. But, you can add another item to your toolkit by careful selection of what you plant.

If you live in an area where deer frequent (and a surprisingly large number of people do), there are all sorts of options that are attractive to you but not to them. Germaniums, tansy, daffodils and many other flowering plants are not favored by deer. Thyme, myrtle, spearmint and other herbs, too, are generally left alone.

Rabbits will eat plants and flowers out of gardens, but a simple, narrow mesh fence can keep them out. Surprisingly, even full-sized rabbits can squeeze between the gaps in standard chain link fence.

It doesn’t generally need to be more than 18 inches high to discourage them, especially if there are easier food sources elsewhere. Rabbits can dig a hole under fencing, so it’s not a foolproof method. To discourage them further, sink the fencing a foot below the ground as well.

Planting a section of clover near the back of an unfenced yard will tend to keep them there and away from your garden. Monks hood, hollyhock, aster, borrage and many others are beautiful as well as not preferred by rabbits.

Gophers (and some types of mole) are found in many places around the U.S. Even a single gopher can cause considerable damage in only a few hours. And, if you find evidence of one, there are often at least one or two more around, sometimes more. They make roundish holes in the ground, sometimes with a mound with tunnels going off in two directions. Sometimes all you see is a very neat hole.

There are several methods for dealing with them, including chemical repellents, vibration producing devices and a variety of traps.

One common chemical repellent is a solution of Castor oil. The theory is that spraying it on grass and plants near where the gopher has been observed causes the oil to coat the roots. The gopher feeds on the roots, gets a sour stomach and leaves. It has been known to work.

Vibration devices are available, but the results are more difficult to judge. In theory, the beep and vibration they emit annoys the gopher and they leave the territory. The labels often say it takes up to two months to judge results. That makes it difficult to know whether they had any effect or the gopher left for other reasons. In the meantime, they can do lots of damage.

Some traps work by killing the gopher. A common type is similar to a mousetrap, except it has jaws which clamp the gopher around the middle. They are effective, but fairly gruesome, and using them requires practice and persistence.

Other traps lead them into a chamber, where they can be trapped harmlessly. The gopher can then be transported to another area. However, catching a half-dozen gophers this way is time consuming and difficult and the traps require digging large holes in your yard to get them into the gopher’s tunnel.

No single method will eliminate all wildlife from your lawn and garden. A good fence is a good start, but fencing off a large yard particularly in a rural area on a large property can be very expensive. But a combination of low-cost, low-effort methods can improve your situation dramatically.

Photo by Cheryl Empey

Related posts:

1. Easy ways to protect your landscape from deer
2. Spring Garden Fixes Safely Fend Off Furry Friends
3. Managing Insects

Remember Bambi? Adorable. Remember Flag, the naturally destructive fawn from The Yearling? Unhappily, the deer that invade our yards every year belong in the second category. They’re just not Bambi . . . they’re more like Flag.

No one can deny how beautiful and majestic these animals are, but unfortunately they see our plants and shrubs as a buffet that we didn’t invite them to! While we’d like to enjoy their beauty, we can do without the widespread loss to our landscapes, gardens and pots.

Whitetail deer can consume, on average, twelve pounds of foliage a day. (That’s a lot of leaves and branches!) And in the winter, natural food sources are scarce, which means they’ll give homeowners more trouble than any other time of year. Simply put, the more snow we get, the worse the problem becomes. A winter of constant snow coverage is great for bulbs and perennials, but evergreens face the toughest challenges from hungry animals looking to survive.

Deer are creatures of habit, and contrary to popular belief, the majority of them do not migrate. Bucks are known to travel upwards of 100 miles, but does will stay within the same 3 to 4 square miles for their entire life. This means, the deer you see this year, are probably the same deer you saw last year. It also means that once they’ve found a food source in your backyard they’ll be back for seconds.

That’s why it’s important to prevent damage by foraging deer now. Breaking their pattern, once it is established, is one of the hardest tasks gardeners face. Once deer adapt to your garden, one deer expert says, they adopt it. Act now and your chances this winter are great for protecting your prized trees, shrubs and gardens from foraging deer.

There are loads of deer repellents on the market, all claiming to deter deer. Some of them work and some of them don’t. Most of them smell horrible and need to be reapplied too frequently. Until now.

Messina Wildlife Management has developed Deer Stopper, the first pleasant smelling deer repellent that works by smell and taste. The product dries clear and odor free and will not burn plants. Deer Stopper is also ideal for winter protection: if plants are covered by snow, it can be applied directly to the snow to prevent digging and foraging. As the snow melts, the product will bind to the plants below.

Deer Stopper is also listed for use by organic growers, meaning it can be applied to edible plants as well. It is an all-natural, biodegradable liquid repellent that guarantees deer will stop feeding on your prized gardens, shrubs and trees for 30 days per application.

This winter protect your plants and shrubs and create your own boundaries for foraging bucks and deer. Now you’re in control, so just spray Deer Stopper and watch the animals stop exactly where you want them to!

For more information on Deer Stopper, retail store locations and other Wildlife management repellents visit www.messinawildlife.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Related posts:

1. Deter ‘deer drama’ this winter
2. Passing the Buck . . . and the Doe and the Fawn
3. Easy ways to protect your landscape from deer