However, the other night at about 2 a.m. these lights came on and lit up our house like Times Square. The Night Before Christmas as pulled up the window blinds only to discover that there was a herd of deer grazing on the spinach in our garden. According to Jeff Jackson, UGA Wildlife Biologist, one deer can eat 4 pounds of woody twigs in a day. That's about 120 pounds a month. And according to some research from Michigan's George Reserve, two bucks and four does produced a heard of 160 descendants in just 6 years.
Nuisance deer are difficult to control in residential communities.
There are a number of commercially available repellents on the market, but they wash off with rain and must be re-applied. Most home remedies are also unreliable and many are unsafe. Shooting is often prohibited. That leaves us with just two options - planting things that deer do not like to eat, and fencing. Planting deer-resistant ornamentals is one of the best ways to minimize deer browsing.