If you don’t have deer issues consider yourself very blessed.  Most current deer population reports agree that there are approximately  30 million deer in the United States and 2 million in the Magnolia state.  This is a far change from almost a 100 years ago when deer  were considered to be on the extinct list.  White tail deer population almost doubles every year as female deer give birth to twins each year.  With fewer predators to control the deer, there has been a surge of deer population across the United States.  Today, suburban environments find deer to be somewhat of a challenge to manage in the landscape. According to Rhonda Massingham Hart, author of Deerproofing Your Yard & Garden, deer have two things on their minds - survival and reproduction.  A single adult deer consumes between 6 and 10 pounds of green vegetation each day.  Deer damage to commercial crops is estimated in the millions of dollars. Car collisions with deer claims are well over $1.2 billion each year. Understanding the deer will help you win the this battle.  ​ According to Hart, the deer's sense of smell  is their first line of defense  - eight times bigger than our human nose and three times larger than man’s best friend, the dog.  Deer use these large and super sensitive noses to find food and sense predators.  This is important information.  Deer also rely on hearing, which is far greater than humans.  Eye-sight is important for deer, they have a 310-degree field of vision.  Deer trust their nose and it is the primary source of information. Are deer out to destroy your yard on purpose?  No, but they have a huge drive to survive.  Deer have a simple checklist according to Hart, “1. Don’t get eaten, 2. Eat, 3. Rest, 4. Dominate other deer.”  Deer have been known to eat over 500 different plants.  If they can afford to be picky eaters, they will.  They have their favorites as you probably know this.  ​Deer seem to love  to eat Azaleas, Camellias, Hosta, Daylilies, Dogwoods, English ivy, Roses, Hydrangeas, Pansies, Phlox, Tulips, Impatiens, Dahlias and I am sure you could  name a few more.  Deer don’t seem to like Mahonia, Cotoneaster, Japanese boxwood, Reeve’s spirea, Rosemary, Yaupon holly, Yew, Yucca, Dusty Miller,  Lantana, Daisies, Salvia, Thyme, Yarrow, Zinnia, Muhley grass, and Maiden grass. Deer are creatures of habit.  If you can prevent deer damage before it starts, it is easier than interrupting an established habit.  A tall fence works extremely well.  Not all deterrents work in every location and to make matters challenging, deer get use to preventative measures after a while and ignore them.   Keeping a deer off balance by attacking their feeling of security helps protect those delightful tulips.  Deer are afraid of anything new, but over time the new becomes old and they are no longer afraid.  This is why you can see deer eating while the yard pets mingle around them.  The trick is to change up the methods, before they adapt.  Changing, rotating and attacking the deer's 5 senses works best.  ​The best defense against deer that I have ever seen is a chain link fence.  Yes, deer can jump fences, but they are usually looking for easy grazing and most of the time they will wander down and around the fence line to the property next door before jumping a fence.  Here are a few simple tactics I have used with success.  Foul smells - deer rely heavily on their nose to find food and to sense danger.  Jam their “radar” (nose) with smells that make them uncomfortable in your yard.  A deer feels uncomfortable when they cannot sense danger in the wind and will not tolerate it long.  I have used bars of soap, Irish Spring,  and Milorganite Fertilizer to accomplish this.  Both of these work for a while and then deer will tolerate them, so rotate them along with other methods. I have read that several people use this method by hanging the bars of soap in the lower tree limbs, 2-4’ off the ground.  I never do this because I don’t want to see the soap hanging in a tree.  I cut the bars into quarters and place about 4’ apart on the pine straw or barely under the pine straw.  I have gotten good results doing this.  After about 3 to 4 weeks I use Milorganite fertilizer sprinkled around the shrub beds, just like I am fertilizing the plants.  I have found good success in a product called All Season Deer Repellent stakes. It seems to work well for about 2-4 months, but then the deer tolerate it too.  These stakes are easy to put out around the plants, but I have found that I need a few more than the package says in areas where the deer population is heavy. Let me know what you are doing to keep deer off your plants. Planting to grow, Jeff P.S.  A great book for understanding deer and how to deer proof your yard is Deerproofing Your Yard & Garden by Rhonda Massingham Hart.  You can find it at Off Square Books.