YOUR GARDEN — Plant Information

Pests, Problems, and Diseases

White-tailed Deer

Susceptible Plants
Deer will eat almost any plant if they are hungry enough.

Favorites include arborvitae (Thuja), yew (Taxus), rhododendron and evergreen azalea (Rhododendron), crab apple (Malus), wintercreeper (Euonymus), hosta (Hosta), tulip (Tulipa), and many perennials, annuals, and vegetables.

Description & Symptoms
Deer pull and tear at plant tissue as they browse for food, leaving a ragged edge rather than a clean cut. Bucks rubbing antlers on tree trunks may shred bark or break stems.

Timing & Life Cycle
Deer browse for food year-round, eating almost 10 pounds a day when food is abundant. They feed especially heavily in the fall as they prepare for winter and as females recover from the stress of raising fawns in the spring and summer. Deer seek out plants in their most nutritious stages, which is often when they are flowering, fruiting or undergoing rapid growth. In the fall, bucks remove the ‘velvet’ from their antlers by rubbing them against tree trunks. Velvet is the hairy skin that nourishes antlers while they are soft and growing. Bucks shed their antlers every winter.

Damage
Deer eat the buds, leaves, flowers, twigs and even the bark of plants. They cause further damage by trampling and sleeping in garden beds and rubbing antlers on tree trunks. Damage can occur from ground level up to 6 feet.

Treatment & Solutions
Commercial repellents provide some protection but often wash off in the rain and must be reapplied. They also can be rubbed off. It is best to rotate different repellents because deer become accustomed to the taste or smell of one product.

Single fences must be taller than 8 feet to exclude deer, who can easily jump a 6- to 8-foot barrier. A double fence system — two fences approximately 4 feet apart and 4 feet tall — is often successful because it is too wide to clear in a single jump and too close together to be jumped separately.

Choosing plants that deer do not prefer is also helpful. Generally, deer avoid plants with sticky, aromatic, or hairy leaves. They rarely eat ornamental grasses. However, no plant is truly deer-proof because, if hungry enough, deer will eat any plant. This is especially true during the winter in areas with high deer populations.

The following is a partial list of plants usually not favored by deer. However, even these plants may at times need additional protection from deer browse.

Trees—ash (Fraxinus), birch (Betula), ginkgo (Ginkgo), hemlock (Tsuga), honey locust (Gleditsia), larch (Larix), redbud (Cercis), sassafras (Sassafras), smoketree (Cotinus), spruce (Picea), sycamore (Platanus), tree lilac (Syringa)

Shrubs—boxwood (Buxus), Carolina allspice (Calycanthus), forsythia (Forsythia), juniper (Juniperus), kerria (Kerria), lilac (Syringa), spirea (Spiraea), witch hazel (Hamamelis)

Bulbs—allium (Allium), daffodil (Narcissus), scilla (Scilla), snowdrop (Galanthus), winter aconite (Eranthis)

Perennials—astilbe (Astilbe), beebalm (Monarda), coreopsis (Coreopsis), goldenrod (Solidago), iris (Iris), Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium), peony (Paeonia), salvia (Salvia), Solomon's seal (Polygonatum), veronica (Veronica), yarrow (Achillea).

Annuals—ageratum (Ageratum), alyssum (Lobularia), four o’clock (Mirabilis), marigold (Tagetes), nasturtium (Tropaeolum), petunia (Petunia), snapdragon (Antirrhinum), stock (Matthiola), sweet william (Dianthus).

Use the advanced search at Illinois' Best Plants to find recommendations for deer-resistant plants that fit your needs.

For more information about coping with deer, call the Plant Information hotline at (847) 835-0972.