When you live in an area with a high deer population, sometimes you find yourself wondering just who you’re growing all these vegetables and flowers for – you or Bambi?
But you can keep deer from nibbling your azaleas and asparagus with this easy-to-make deer repellent recipe.
Who Is This Garden For Anyway?
My dislike of Bambi and his friends extends beyond the garden. Having hit a deer with my car twice in my lifetime, finding my garden nibbled on only adds insult to injury. So, I don’t mess around when it comes to protecting my veggies.
While there are plenty of deer repellents on the market, if you start comparing ingredients, you’ll find most of them are all the same. What’s more, they’re all generally made with things you can find in your kitchen and your garden shed.
This recipe is no different. It’s inexpensive to make, easy to mix up, and stores well for future applications.
The Ingredients
- 1 jar Garlic Powder
- 1 jar Ground Cloves
- 1 jar Cayenne Pepper
- 1 3lb bag of Blood Meal
The first three are probably already in your spice rack, and the fourth might be in the garden shed. If not, it’s pretty easy to find. You can even order a bag or two here.
You’ll note that each of these ingredients has a potent aroma, and that’s what you want. Deer are prey animals. When it comes to avoiding predators, one of the senses they rely on heavily is scent. Garlic, cloves and cayenne pepper are all strange and potent smells. Anything that smells off is going to put a deer on alert.
The last ingredient is blood meal; this makes up the majority of our deer repellent. Aside from being an excellent natural fertilizer that’s high in nitrogen, its smell keeps deer away. Naturally, it makes sense that the scent of blood would warn deer to stay away. When you are prey, you don’t want to get too near where a predator has recently made a kill.
Between the scent of the blood meal and the strange and potent smells of the spices, this mix is an olfactory warning for deer to stay away.
Mixing It All Up
Because you’re using cayenne powder, I always suggest wearing gloves and a mask. Mix it up indoors so you don’t have to contend with the wind. You don’t want to get this stuff up your nose or in your eyes while you’re stirring it all together.
Choose a resealable container to mix it in, such as a small storage tote or a bucket with a lid. Dump in the blood meal first, then add the garlic, ground cloves and cayenne pepper. Using your gloved hands, a paint stirrer or a wooden spoon, carefully and thoroughly combine the ingredients until they’re well blended. You’ll want to store it somewhere cool and dry.
A Note About Sourcing Spices
You’ll notice I say one jar for each of the spices listed. I’m talking about the average-sized jar that you can find at your local dollar store or Walmart. And that’s exactly where I suggest you pick them up. There’s no need to spend money on better quality spices here as we’re going to be sprinkling them around our yard rather than making a quiche.
Using Your Homemade Deer Repellent
You’ll need to experiment a bit to figure out the best placement for it around your lawn and garden. I’ve found that repellents like this, which work with scent, sprinkling a little at the edge of the yard or where deer enter your yard and then at the edges of flower beds and the boundaries of gardens, seem to work best.
Because it has cayenne pepper in it, you can even slightly sprinkle this mixture in and around your garden and flower beds. That way, if deer decide to take a nibble, their bite will bite back! Just remember to rinse off any vegetables or herbs before eating them, or you’ll get the same peppery kick.
You’ll need to reapply the deer repellant after heavy rain.
Start with a single batch and see how long it takes you to get through it. You may find it easiest to mix up several batches in a 5-gallon bucket to get you through the growing season or if you end up with an especially rainy summer.
For the Best Results
When it comes to preventing deer from nibbling your garden down to nubs, the best approach is to use multiple deterrents. Relying on one method alone rarely gets the job done, so choose several from the list below to use around your lawn and garden. This will give the best long-term results.
Scare tape – this shiny, light-refracting tape flutters in the wind and catches the sun, causing sporadic movement and flashes of light. Move the tape to new locations every week or so to prevent deer from getting too comfortable around them.
Plant deer-resistant varieties of flowers and shrubs – here are eleven deer-resistant bulbs to get you started.
Solar-powered Red Predator Eyes – originally, we got these to put on the outside of our chicken coop to deter foxes and wolverines, but they worked so well at keeping critters out of the yard that I put a couple at the edge of the garden, too.
For a full list of ways to keep deer out of your garden, you’ll want to read my article here. It also includes my dad’s surprisingly effective method for keeping deer from eating your flowers and veggies. (Granted, it might not work for everyone, but it worked for us, and it was quite a novel approach.)
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