On Feb 17, 9:05 am, Janet Baraclough
wrote:
The message .com
from "peterhig" contains these words:

Deer are in the habit of scraping their new antlers on some of my
young trees. Any prevention ideas? Is there some kind of wrap to
thwart this? Any thoughts appreciated. Peter Hight (Marin County CA)

I had that problem in a previous garden. The good news is, it's only
a seasonal problem until they get rid of the itchy velvet, and they are
creatures of habit and tend to focus upon a particular tree. In time,
you will recognise the conformation of trunk which looks most attractive
to an itchy deer. Then you can give it some temporary protection. If you
rub your hands on the vulnerable trees, or pee on them, or hang a sweaty
tee shirt on them, the smell is a deterrent but you will need to renew
it every week or after heavy rain. Or, you can lay some brushwood round
the base of the trunk, or, if you're really determined to spend money,
wrap a bit of wire or wire netting loosely round the tree.

Those soft expanding plastic spiral rabbit guards can be used, but
you'll need to fit them on higher up the trunk than usual and they
sometimes slip down.

Janet.


These may work. Bucks stop rubbing when trees get large but I've seen
them hit trees with trunks over 6 inches in diameter. Local park
retreed a field where trees maybe 10 ft tall were staked and wrapped
with plastic spiral guards. Bucks destroyed several of these trees,
so, I think, only absolute solution would be fencing.

Frank